Peet’s ‘Coffee for Coffee People’ playfully roasts overly complicated drink orders
As coffee drinks become increasingly convoluted, the advertising debut for Peet’s Coffee targets real coffee connoisseurs.
Peet’s Coffee, the java juggernaut known for roasting coffee beans since 1966, is percolating a return to the basics of coffee advertising with its debut campaign, ‘Coffee for Coffee People.’
The campaign hit the wire on Monday and each of its six spots poke lighthearted fun at overly complicated coffee orders while showcasing the brand’s dedication to the simply perfect roast.
In the hero spot, ‘Mango Breeze,’ a mother and two kids attempt to order three drinks at the drive-thru. Each drink sounds less like coffee than the last, from the daughter’s “large pink mango breeze lemonade drink with extra acai and fusion blast syrup” to the mom’s own “non-fat sweet persimmon fizzer, with no foam, extra hot, extra dry with a half-caff triple berry and fusion blast.” The barista walks out on them before they even complete the order.
A similar point is made in ‘Birthday Cake,’ a spot that follows two people who wander through a rainforest in search of Birthday Cake and Rainbow Sprinkle Donut coffee blends. A farmer looks on in mutual confusion and disgust as he turns to the viewer, explaining that while customers may not find birthday cake-flavored coffee beans on the menu at Peet’s, they will find a company that prides itself on training its coffee roasters for 10,000 hours in the art of hand roasting and crafting coffee beverages. In other words, he echoes the campaign’s message: Peet’s is all about “crafting coffee for coffee people.”
Jessica Buttimer, vice-president of brand marketing at Peet’s, said: “There are a thousand ways to make a delicious coffee, but at Peet’s, that doesn’t mean sending the coffee into the background or overwhelming it with other ingredients. We like to celebrate it for what it is: this amazingly versatile and delicious beverage. Coffee companies seem to have lost the plot recently in terms of caring about actual coffee. So it felt like rich territory for Peet’s to come out and let people know that our priority is simply coffee, the best coffee.”
Moreover, the campaign is informed by Peet’s internal brand research, which illuminates how deep the love of coffee runs among true coffee fans. The survey consumer found that 74% of coffee lovers consider their cup of coffee the best part of their days, while 87% know a good cup of coffee from a bad cup and 74% of coffee lovers declared they are curious about understanding different coffee varieties, blends and origins.
The work was ideated and developed partnership with Mischief, which Peet’s named as its creative agency of record earlier this year. Meanwhile, Mischief’s sister shop No Fixed Address Media was named media agency of record to handle integrated brand communications.
“As a devoted regular ’coffee coffee’ drinker myself, I knew the audience was out there for a brand that put coffee first, so it was just a matter of connecting with them,” said Carl Peterson, creative director at Mischief. “Sometimes, the fastest way to show people who you are is by showing them who you are not. The best way to do that, we thought, was to make a little fun of the ’fake’ coffee enthusiasts.”
The campaign is currently running across the US, with attention to key markets in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, and Washington DC. Other campaign elements include out-of-home, PR and media channels such as Hulu, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest, Spotify and Amazon.
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