ZUS Coffee’s Blue Buddy takes centre stage in cryptic campaign

Something is brewing at ZUS Coffee. Yesterday (12 June), the brand dropped a fresh video of its "ZUS Buddy" character Blue Buddy walking through the streets of Kuala Lumpur with a tearful face. The caption read: "SomeBUDDY is taking tiny steps through the street, and somehow, each one FEELs different. Coming soon."

The video also featured other Zus Buddy characters with various expressions, walking through the streets with Blue Buddy. This is the fifth of the Malaysian beverage chain's cryptic social posts featuring its ZUS BUDDY characters.

The characters, Blue Buddy, Pinky Boo, Frappe Fen, Choco Chipster, Porta Pal and Bean Boss were first unveiled in October 2024 as keychain plushies, which were made available with the purchase of any two 'Frappe Buddy' series drinks. It also announced further "ZUS Buddy" giveaways in November, after releasing a series of adorable 3D animated videos to introduce each character.

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That was the last that customers heard of the plushie characters, until this June, when ZUS Coffee shared an announcement on its social accounts, alerting app users that Kaldi, the goat herder character in its logo, is "experiencing a mental breakdown".

The post on 3 June further said that "He's tired, like all of us. After years of serving specialty coffee, he needs a short break. In the meantime, someBUDDY's taking over to shake things up", pointing to its blue coffee cup mascot, Blue Buddy. 

Soon after, the brand shared a video on its TikTok and Instagram accounts, showing Kaldi with two Xs over his eyes, and Blue Buddy jumping into the ZUS Coffee app icon, taking over Kaldi's place. The post's caption read: "Guess we really need to give Kaldi a break. Something fluffy is about to take over. Stay tuned?" Users in the comment sections of those videos speculated that a logo makeover was underway, or that maybe it was a teaser for a new "ZUS Buddy" character.

Not long afterwards, ZUS Coffee dropped yet another cryptic video, depicting the "ZUS Buddy" squad "departing" from Malaysia for an exciting journey. However, Blue Buddy gets stuck at immigration and is unable to join the rest of the group. The caption of the video tags the initials of Singapore, the Philippines and Brunei, the foreign countries which ZUS is currently available in.

Finally, ZUS teased that the "ZUS Buddy" team was making a comeback, in a video showing the keychain plushies laying around the ZUS office in random places: on the chair, on a shelf, in between some blinds, and even in the corner of an elevator. 

While we can't quite put a finger on what ZUS Coffee is trying to get at with its series of cryptic social posts, it could be an announcement for the return of its keychain plushies, or a rebranding effort to phase out Kaldi and make way for Blue Buddy as its new official mascot and brand visual. 

A+M has reached out to ZUS Coffee for more information.

Earlier in April, Venon Tian, chief operating officer of Zuspresso said in an interview with Bloomberg, that ZUS Coffee was planning to open nearly 200 new stores in Southeast Asia this year. It will open 107 new stores in Malaysia, 80 in the Philippines and six in Singapore. The coffee shop operator also plans to start its first stores in Thailand and Indonesia this year. 

Currently, the coffee-chain is the largest in Malaysia, overtaking Starbucks and has 743 stores in the country. Starbucks, in comparison, has 320 stores. Meanwhile, ZUS Coffee currently has 120 stores in the Philippines and four in Singapore. The coffee chain also operates in Brunei under a franchise model. Tian reportedly said that ZUS Coffee's success lies in its ability to localise flavours for each market. This includes palm sugar drinks in Malaysia and purple yam coffee in the Philippines.

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