ADVERTISING agencies often lament that it is rare to find a client who articulates the communications goal and expected outcomes from a marketing campaign.
But when these rare gems come by, amazing things do happen. That is what happened with Wonda Coffee and Dentsu LHS. Wonda Coffee came to the advertising agency with a plan already in mind and what ensued was pure magic.
Having said that, magic can only happen with all the right elements in place. Wonda Coffee, a smaller brand of coffee in Malaysia, had to first navigate the country’s changing coffee trends.
The Malaysian coffee culture has clearly evolved over the last few years. The third wave of coffee was a movement to produce high quality coffee and soon, coffee became quite the lifestyle symbol. This overseas trend quickly made its way to our shores and became predominant.
The number of artisanal coffee outlets that popped up in the food and beverage scene in Kuala Lumpur alone proved to be a great addition to the traditional coffee shops and canned coffee drinks.
Rapid expansion influenced a strong lifestyle of out-of-home consumption. This opened up a segment of growth for the coffee market.
It wasn’t just hipsters grabbing a cup of coffee at the café that drove demand. Many young professionals were also drinking coffee on-the-go. The ready-to-drink (RTD) market showed a healthy growth of 8% and 10% in 2011 and 2012 respectively, according to a Euromonitor International report.
With this trend firmly in place, Permanis Sandilands introduced Wonda Coffee to the Malaysian public at the end of November 2013, partnering its advertising agency, Dentsu LHS.
Strategic communication challenges
This was Permanis Sandilands second attempt at entering the RTD coffee market. Its first brand, Boss Coffee, did not perform well.
Learning from past mistakes, the company knew that it had to do things differently this time.
It started off by setting exacting goals and aimed to gain in 12 months what took Boss Coffee more than three years to achieve.
Permanis concedes that this was an overly ambitious target but it was up for the challenge.
Wonda was up against Nestlé, which has long dominated both in-home and RTD coffee consumption.
With combined marketing bud-gets of more than RM57 million and its strong brand, Nestlé easily outspent and out-distributed Permanis Sandilands.
The big idea — the five-dimensional gourmet coffee experience
The guiding philosophy was, if you can’t outspend them, you can always outthink them. The Dentsu LHS team started searching for that key insight that would break through the clutter, drive growth and more importantly, get Wonda Coffee noticed in a landscape saturated with canned beverages.
On one side of the coffee culture, there were Starbucks and Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf and at the opposite end, the formidable giant Nescafé, followed by a host of competitive RTD coffee brands like Pokka, Ali Café and OldTown.
The team found that RTD coffee is considered the “down-market” of the gourmet segment. Although 83% of coffee drinkers consume RTD coffee at least once a week, they do so grudgingly — a convenient coffee fix, rather than the taste factor.
The team capitalised on this unmet need by positioning the brand between the artisanal coffees and the RTD category as the “Premium and Gourmet Canned Coffee Beverage”.
For the target audience, enjoying coffee is very much a sensorial experience. The sound of coffee percolating, the sight of a beautifully poured coffee, the warm touch of that cup of coffee, the fresh smell of roasted coffee beans filling the air and the taste of the coffee itself, work together in perfect harmony to deliver a great coffee experience.
That is why Dentsu LHS decided to go with a sensorial five-dimensional campaign.
The team chose the print medium to spearhead its campaign as it was possibly the only medium that would allow its audience to “touch”, “see”, “hear”, “smell” and “taste”the product.
“It was a print media revolution and the very first campaign of its kind. When we first heard this idea from the client, we were amazed and very glad to be part of it,” says K C Aui, creative director at Dentsu LHS and the lead for the Wonda campaign.
The 5D print campaign ran for five days in a row.
“These were not just ads; they were an experience. We started off by using multiple blurbs to tease our audience before the launch. This was done to create the anticipation that something big was coming. After which, we launched the 5D print campaign,” Aui says.
The first day was a four-page advertisement to activate the “touch” element with actual size die-cut “pop-up” cans of Wonda coffee. Day two triggered “sight”, requiring the use of 3D glasses inserted into the pages of the newspaper.
Day three was one of the most elaborate and innovative ideas — incorporating “sound” in print. A light-sensitive music chip was embedded into the paper and played the Wonda Coffee jingle when the reader flipped to the ad.
The sense of “smell” came in the form of a coffee-scented ad so consumers could smell the aroma of Wonda coffee on the page.
Day five, the final day of the campaign, saw another full-page ad with a cut-out coupon offering a can of Wonda Coffee for only 10 sen at any 7-Eleven outlet. This was to encourage people to try the new coffee.
Campaign objectives and results
The objectives were simple. Permanis wanted to hit fast and hard to achieve the highest impact in the shortest time possible.
“The client wanted to achieve Boss Coffee’s highest sales figure and market share (attained in the 39th month Boss Coffee was released) by the 12th month of the Wonda launch. Secondly, to become the second largest RTD coffee brand in that same time,” says Aui.
The objectives were met by the second month of the launch. By the time the campaign ended (at the end of January 2014), Wonda Coffee had already exceeded its target by 80%.
In addition, the coupon sales from the last day of its 5D print campaign drove an extremely positive response. The daily sales on Jan 25 alone contributed 36% to the month’s sales.
“The coupon promotion created strong demand. The clients saw a huge leap in sales in February — an increase of 97% from the previous month,” Aui adds.
By February, Wonda had already grabbed a market share of 4.7% in Malaysia, surpassing the original goal of 4%.
By June 2014, it took an 8.9% market share, exceeding the original goal of hitting 7% by the 12th month. It was four months ahead of target.
Wonda moved up very quickly, overtook its competitors by a large margin and gained its spot as the second largest RTD coffee brand in Malaysia.
“In terms of media return on investment, the combined media investment with earned media coverage generated RM3,149,004.43 in returns, largely from print and television coverage,” Aui says.
About the Effie Awards
Effie Worldwide stands for effectiveness in marketing communications, spotlighting marketing ideas that work and encouraging thoughtful dialogue about the drivers of marketing effectiveness. The Effie Awards are known by advertisers globally as the pre-eminent awards in the industry, and recognise all forms of marketing communications that contribute to a brand’s success. For educational purposes, Effie and 4As encourage the dissemination of best practices in advertising and marketing communications effectiveness.
About the 4As
The 4As Malaysia was formed in 1971 and is the Malaysian industry’s foremost body representing and promoting the values of advertising agencies in the marketing communications industry to advertisers, media, suppliers, the government and the public.
This organisation encompasses over 80 homegrown and multinational member agencies involved in brand strategy and marketing communication. It celebrates, encourages and fosters creativity through brand-building ideas that drive growth and value generation for brands. The 4As promotes best practice and business excellence in all forms of professional advertising practice. It requires its member agencies to invest in continuous professional development in order to retain membership. The 4As engages the business community and government in dialogue to demonstrate the relevance of advertising as an effective vehicle for economic growth.
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