Fast Facts

What
   Branding campaigns in coffee cafés and café chains.

Who
   BriteVision Media, headquartered in San Francisco.

How it works
   Promotions, sampling, life-size posters, street teams and free coffee are added to sleeve campaigns to brand cafés, says Brett Morrison, vice president for sales and marketing.
   Coffee sleeves and other programs previously available only in independent cafés are now available in chains like Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, Borders and Einstein’s.
   Sleeves are the basis of every café campaign, with options like signage and street teams as add-ons.
   "Free Coffee Days" is one marketing option. Consumers stopping by a participating café during morning peak "rush" get a complimentary cup of coffee branded with the advertiser’s message. The free coffee event is publicized the preceding week by posting branded signs. Street teams can be used the day of the event to publicize the brand, location and giveaway.
   Couponing, sampling and surveying can be part of a campaign.
   Table tents, posters, life-size cardboard "standees" and acrylic brochure dispensers are used in conjunction with coffee sleeve ads to brand a café.
   On the morning of the premiere of ABC’s "Life with Bonnie" a six-foot Bonnie Hunt poster, in which she’s holding a cup of coffee as well as a baby, greeted morning coffee customers at cafés in the top 10 DMAs. Free coffee was handed out for two hours while street teams announced the promotion.
   Coffee-sleeve advertising is always the basic component of a café campaign, with options added on.
   Coupons can be printed on the coffee sleeves. Perforation or dotted-cutout guides can be incorporated for easier handling of the coupon. An ongoing sleeve campaign can include coupons for a portion of the distribution, by time or locations. Samples and game pieces can also be attached.
   Ice Breakers and Velamints have both placed their product samples on coffee sleeves. "It’s a great sampling opportunity as folks with coffee breath will be receiving them," Morrison says.
   Creative is provided by advertisers.
   "Some clients tend to use existing posters," Morrison says.
   Creative can, and often does, tie into a coffee theme. "ABC created everything just for its launch, including a special Bonnie-blend coffee, the poster and coffee sleeves," says Morrison.
   CBS tied geography into creative for its "Star Search" campaign, focusing on locales including New York, Chicago and Los Angeles.
   Chains reserve the right to audit the advertiser and the creative.
   "The advertisers we’ve had so far have been philanthropic venues like museums and community groups," says Lisa Pandolfini, brand manager for the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf chain. "They’re a great avenue for generating community spirit, something we try to do every day in our neighborhood stores."
   Signage size is per client specification. For example, Citibank’s credit card application dispenser was approximately six inches by 14 inches, an ABC "Life with Bonnie" standee was over six feet tall and counter point-of-purchase displays are eight inches by ten inches.
   Product exclusivity is built in. "Every advertiser is exclusive in every café venue," Morrison says.
   Café branding is used as part of a media mix as well as a stand-alone. Club One Fitness in San Francisco used coffee outlets to promote its free trial membership campaign, while Master Card used café ads as an element in a campaign that also utilized bus shelters. Integrated campaigns are used for 60 to 70 percent of BriteVision’s clients.
   Most café advertisers are national brands, but café branding also works well for local companies, Morrison says.
   Advertisers can buy one or multiple markets and can in some cases cherry-pick locations.

Markets
   San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Seattle, Washington D.C., Chicago, Minneapolis, Boston, Philadelphia, Sacramento, Portland, Denver, Toronto, Miami, Detroit, Las Vegas, Baltimore, San Diego, Milwaukee, Phoenix, St. Louis, Atlanta, Charlotte, Nashville, Pittsburgh, Columbus, Spokane, Houston, Dallas, Indianapolis, El Paso, Cleveland, Memphis, Cincinnati, Boise, Buffalo, Tampa, Oklahoma City, Albuquerque, Missoula, Salt Lake City, Orlando, Colorado Springs, Albany, Louisville, Madison, Tulsa, San Antonio, Rochester, Santa Barbara, Tucson, Austin, Lansing, New Haven, Syracuse, Gainesville, Providence, Reno, Richmond, Fargo, Raleigh-Durham, Eugene and Kansas City, Missouri.
   Locations number 3,500 and include universities, airports, downtowns and suburban independent and chain coffee outlets. Sleeves can also be distributed through convenience stores that sell coffee.
   Café branding is available in all BriteVision markets.

Numbers
   Eight million coffee sleeves are distributed monthly through a café network of 4,000 outlets.

How measured?
   Number of coffee sleeves is the standard measure.
   Redemption items like coupons and offers like Club One Fitness’s trial memberships are trackable.
   "Marketing people wanted a way to track," Morrison says. "Citibank, for example, increased its in-store presence by offering credit card applications in a "take one" on the counter. Integrated into the café environment is an uncluttered, controlled method of accountability."
   Events like "Free Coffee Days" are documented with photographs. Campaign documentation includes shipping records and independent site surveys.
   Clients can use street teams to survey customers.

Research
   Over 29 million American adults over the age of 18 drink gourmet coffee beverages every day, including specialty coffee, espresso, latte, cappuccino and frozen and iced coffee, according to the National Coffee Association.
   Additionally, 64 per cent of all coffee is consumed at breakfast, 28 percent is consumed between meals and 8 percent at meals other than breakfast.

What product categories do well?
   Automotive, consumer products, entertainment, education and arts, fashion, financial services, food, health clubs, dot.coms, non-profits, pharmaceuticals, publications, real estate, sports teams, technology, telecommunications and travel do well, as do coffee-related products like creamers.
  What's not accepted: tobacco or pornography.

Demographics

   Specialty retail coffee drinkers range in age between 18-54 and are typically white-collar professionals earning $65,000- plus annually, according to Scarborough Research Data.
   Outlet location and product preferences can further define customer demographics, Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf’s Pandolfini says.
   "We serve a broad range from 18 on up. Customers 25 to 45 like their lattes. It’s all over the board, sometimes contingent on the area. West Hollywood is different than the beach or downtown."

Making the buy
   Lead-time is four weeks with creative in hand for a sleeve campaign and eight weeks for sampling and other branding elements.
   Factors that affect pricing include number of cafés, number of sleeves, and other campaign options. Typically pricing is adjusted by volume. Cherry-picking locations can add a surcharge.

Who’s already in cafés?
   AAA, Acura, Honda, Jaguar, Lexus, Nissan, Volkswagen, Britesmile, Getty Museum, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Denver Public Library, The New England Journal of Medicine, ABC, CBS, CNN, Disney, New Line Cinema, PBS, Sony Entertainment, Warner Brothers, Gap, American Express, MasterCard, Merrill Lynch, Borden, Jelly Belly, Diamond Nuts, Club One Fitness, Monster.com, Yahoo, American Red Cross, Planned Parenthood, The Salvation Army, Johnson & Johnson, Schering-Plough, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Minnesota Twins, Microsoft, Digimarc, AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, Amtrak, Hyatt Hotels, jetBlue Airways, Thrifty Car Rental and Holland America Cruise Line.

What they’re saying
   "We used it to reach young professionals in the 25-to-50 age range. A fitness routine has to be convenient, so we used cafés in close proximity to the San Francisco financial district to raise awareness of our nearby clubs. We offered a trial membership and included our web site address and an 800 number that rings to the closest club when you use it. People picked up the offer when they went to their regular cafés to pick up their morning coffee." –Eliza Whitmore, marketing manager for Club One Fitness in San Francisco

Web site info
   BriteVision Media at www.britevision.com

April 21, 2003© 2003 Media Life

-Kathy Prentice writes about out-of-home advertising  for Media Life, penning her stories from the resort town of Traverse City, in the upper reaches of Michigan.

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