According to the Salt Lake City Olympics Committee, an estimated 1.0-1.5 Million were expected to attend the Olympic games. In fact, from 65,000-80,000 people daily were expected to congregate in downtown Salt Lake City attending various Olympic events.

With this in mind, our goal were:To transfer positive international Nescafe associations to US consumers and combine that with fun, exciting and intriguing communications tactics;Create buzz and excitement;Associate Nescafé with winter sports, entertainment and being social;Reach international consumers who are familiar with Nescafé and reach trendsetters from other U.S. cities Persuade consumers to try and purchase Nescafé;Maintaining volume in West Coast markets while providing a solid sales story for selling Nescafé into distributors nationally. Become the “little” coffee brand that dominated the 2002 Winter Olympics in a big way.

Use traditional media to take advantage of heightened interest among consumers. Utilize non-traditional and grass-roots media to blanket downtown Salt Lake City.

TraditionalPrimetime Olympic broadcasts were purchased locally to associate the brand with the Olympics in key West Coast markets, including Salt Lake City.

Ads were purchased in Olympic-themed city guides and alternative newspapers in Salt Lake City to place the message in the hands of visitors who were looking for Olympic information.

Non-traditionalA multi-faceted program was created to target young, hip visitors. We hired two companies, GoGorilla and AdVan, to help implement the program detailed below:Nescafe samplers - Street teams of attractive, knowledgeable men and women who sampled hot Nescafé from thermal backpacks and distributed branded maps (see below) to Olympic visitorsBranded restaurant/nightlife maps Distributed at downtown hotels and via street teamsHighlighted “hip” restaurants, pubs and clubs in downtown Salt Lake CityBranded coasters, napkins and postcardsDistributed in pre-selected restaurants, pubs and clubsLaser projections onto buildings in highly trafficked areas in downtown Salt Lake CityAdVanCustomized, mobile media center featuring a 5ft tall X 10 ft wide, high resolution, daylight-readable television monitor. Featured digital Nescafé adsLeveraged contacts with traditional media to align with entertainment content -- movie trailers (i.e. Spiderman, Men In Black 2) and music videos (i.e. Lenny Kravitz, Jimmy Eat World). The Nescafé Advan cruised around the downtown area of Salt Lake City and created buzz and curiosity wherever it wentGoody bags with Nescafé samples, branded merchandise and maps were distributed to crowds in downtown Salt Lake CityResults4-week share increased of 3.2 points4-week volume increase of 6.9%Achieved press coverage by the Associated Press, Reuters and many moreAchieved big-budget awareness with a fraction of the official sponsors’ budgetsClearly created buzz and noise in a saturated and expensive arena Exceeded all expectations After a successful West Coast launch in the United States, Nescafé Frothé was working toward eventual national distribution. We needed to maintain our West Coast momentum, but also wanted to provide the rest of the country with a “sneak preview” of Nescafé Frothé. Based on extensive research of our target audience and knowledge of their affinities, we decided the perfect place to do this was the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. The media team was responsible for the initial idea, contract negotiation, implementation, maintenance and post-evaluation of this campaign. The 2002 Winter Olympics were selected because:Salt Lake City already had a presence of Nescafe product and advertising;International awareness is already solid for Nescafé and could be leveraged to introduce new consumers unfamiliar with the brand;It represented a unique opportunity to reach trendsetters and largest congregation of winter sports enthusiasts – both key targets for Nescafé. Budget-wise, Nescafé was a “little” guy competing in an arena of giants. So, the idea was to use our knowledge of the consumer’s affinities and leverage them to catapult Nescafé into in an exclusive arena where big budgets were the norm. We knew that visitors to Salt Lake City would want to absorb the culture and nightlife of the city after attending events during the day, we decided that the Nescafé brand would become an unofficial tour guide. Instead of associating Nescafé with official entities, we associated it with Salt Lake City nightlife and entertainment. We accomplished this by using non-traditional/grass roots vehicles targeting locations where the young and “hip” would be gathered. We created “buzz” in more ways than one, and achieved national press coverage as a result. Wherever crowds were gathering, Nescafé was there. Whether it was offering hot Nescafé to groups of tourists waiting in lines for the infamous Roots hats, or projecting a giant Nescafé image on buildings as spectators headed for local watering holes, Nescafé found the people and made an impression. In fact, Nescafé was so rampant throughout Salt Lake City, some people mistakenly assumed the “little” brand was an official sponsor.

To launch the Nescafé brand in the U.S. the strategic decision was made to become the preferred brand among the next generation of coffee consumers. Universal McCann brought dimension to this target group through extensive demographic research and more importantly by understanding their lifestyle interests. Identifying entertainment as the most powerful link among this emerging culture, music was then selected as an important connector of young adults 18-34. Born from this key insight, the Nescafe Java Jam concert series was developed to build brand equity among young adults 18-34 and drive volume at retail in Western U.S. markets where new Nescafé products are sold. The challenge was to create an integrated promotional marketing program leveraging consumers’ music affinity to develop a meaningful, one-to-one interaction establishing the brand's credibility while delivering a compelling purchase incentive. Working as an integrated team with several communications partners, Universal McCann took on the role of selecting media to promote the event, scheduled activity to align with promotions and negotiated added-value elements to enhance and extend the media buys. We were instrumental in the implementation of promotions and events, but partnered with all involved agencies to create a powerful and truly integrated full-blown event.