2019 Winners & Shortlists

Background.

The McCafé brand had been stagnating, as people did not associate the brand with coffee, nor did they have any association with the brand itself. Quite simply, it was overshadowed by the big brand it stemmed from, McDonald’s. The brief was simple, create something that will attract coffee lovers in order increase brand awareness, coffee association, and help the brand come out of the shadows. Budget was minimal of course, and the scalability was limited as we could only use the McDonald’s stores.

Describe the creative idea.

We created quirky posters for McCafé to demonstrate the effect sleep has on individuals, a problem coffee lovers endure every day. The three executions; Bowling Ball, Safe and Hammer were likened to human facial features. These heavy heads were then suspended in limbo; an impending thud, just waiting to happen. The remedy? McCafé

Describe the strategy.

McCafé is a brand that is built offers people simple pleasures in an increasingly complicated world, creating small moments of feel good. However, people did not associate the brand with coffee, nor did they have any association with the brand itself. Quite simply, it was overshadowed by the big brand it stemmed from, McDonald’s. In order to come out of this shadow, we needed to create something the spoke the language of coffee lovers, people who cannot live without it. A common insight across the different demographics was that they were so reliant on coffee that without it, they get cranky, short tempered, and most of all sleepy. There was that common saying they all say “don’t talk to me until I’ve had my cup of coffee”. Using this insight, McCafé finally cracked a way to speak the coffee language... without actually saying anything.

Describe the execution.

Sleep is an act that is associated with both day and night, and our design stemmed from this fact. Using a bright yellow pallet for the background to represent day whereas we used a midnight blue + purple to represent the night, creating a high contrast for the naked eye to get attracted to. Combined with the human facial features on the bowling ball, safe and hammer, this design gave a clear, simple, single minded message to coffee lovers, when you’re heavy headed and sleepy at any point in the day, McCafé is your solution. We placed these posters in McDonald’s stores where the average footfall per day reached over 2,500 per store. If you are a coffee lover, you will always want a cup of coffee, especially when you see an image the speaks to you, without actually saying anything.

List the results.

Commercial: Increase in coffee sales by 5% vs. the previous 6-month average. Marketing: The posters reached over 600,000 people Communication: Coffee lovers began to get more inclined to try McCafé