#MarketingEventsAwards 2020 highlight: How Nescafé elevated coffee-drinking experience

In Malaysia, Nescafé is a well-loved coffee brand through generations and is part of the local culture. However, the brand was concerned that it was losing relevance among younger consumers as they gravitated from in-home coffee consumption towards internationally-branded cafés and specialty coffee.

Keeping this in mind, the brand wanted the re-launch of Nescafé Gold premium instant coffee with a new formula and packaging to graduate from its roots as the conventional home coffee to an elevated coffee-drinking experience. With the aid of event agency, Red Nose Malaysia, this execution nabbed the team the three silver awards for Best Event for a Targeted Community, Best PR/Marketing Stunt and Best Retail/Shopper event at MARKETING-INTERACTIVE’s Marketing Events Awards.

Challenge

In Malaysia, Nescafé is a well-loved coffee brand through generations and is part of the local culture. However, it was losing relevance among younger consumers as they gravitated from in-home coffee consumption towards internationally-branded cafés and specialty coffee.

The re-launch of Nescafé Gold premium instant coffee was the ideal opportunity to graduate from its roots as the conventional home coffee to an elevated coffee-drinking experience.

Strategy

Getting the execution on the road required understanding the target audience - coffee drinking is more than just about a cup of coffee.

Coffee drinkers insight #1: The coffee culture had evolved as consumer tastes were becoming more sophisticated. Today’s consumers understand that every step of production – from farmer to roaster to barista – is vital in creating a great cup of coffee.

Coffee drinkers insight #2: Coffee is a catalyst of social relationships. When people meet, they invite each other to have a cup of coffee.

The idea: An experiential pop-up café to showcase Nescafé’s expertise in crafting premium coffee.

The new Nescafé Gold premium instant coffee – from the careful selection of mountain-grown Arabica beans to the perfect roasting process – is best experienced through smell (aroma) and taste (flavour).

A café is an intimate venue for people to socialise, relax or catch up on work. It is a place to nurture meaningful connections and moments with those who matter.

Coffee sampling in supermarkets, kiosks, and trucks were common – not usually inspiring the 'gold' standard. As such, the team opted to convert a container into a café – Nescafé Gold Container Café.

The team identified locations with high foot traffic at entrances of leading shopping malls and proceeded to create an oasis to escape the hustle and bustle of the city. It wanted to provide a place for friends (and strangers) to congregate and connect over a cup of coffee to boost a sense of community that is rooted in coffee-drinking.

The Nescafé Gold Container Café is a curated experiential coffee journey in three steps:

1) Inform,
2) Educate
3) Ignite pleasure.

Step 1: Information was presented about Nescafé’s expertise in coffee craftmanship

Certified baristas enlightened consumers about the meticulous process that goes into creating a cup of Nescafé Gold, and demonstrated the convenient way of making café-style coffee at home.

Step 2: Educated consumers on having unique coffee experiences

Consumers became ‘baristas for the day’ and created their unique cup of Nescafé Gold by adding condiments such as rose petals, chocolate sticks, caramel, assorted nuts, chocolate chips, cinnamon sticks, marshmallows, cookie bits, and chocolate sauce. The easy to purchase condiments taught consumers that they can elevate their coffee drinking experience at home without having to pay for premium-priced café-style coffee.

Step 3: Ignited pleasure via experiences surrounding the cup of coffee

Baristas crafted signature drinks to bring out the taste of Nescafé Gold. Coffee and food pairing sessions serving sweet and savoury snacks enhanced the coffee drinking experience.

Street art was hand-painted on the outer panels of the container by local artistes – a barista reaching out with a cup of coffee to the consumer; a female breaking out from her comfort zone. Whilst enjoying a cup of Nescafé Gold, these images provided consumers with Instagram-able moments for social media.

Result

The Nescafé Gold Container Café revitalised the Nescafé instant coffee drinking experience with 38,600 cups served at eighteen locations across four states nationwide.