Draft Cafe: Celebrating Four Years of Coffee, Creativity, and Customer-Centricity

Project Type
Digital Marketing

Location
Saudi Arabia

Industry
F&B

Project Link

Challenge

Draft Cafe is a coffee shop-meets-creative space in Riyadh’s Al Sulimaniya district. We have accompanied them for three years from their first anniversary until their third recently. Throughout the journey, they commissioned Blue Hat to create offline activations and online campaigns for the cafe to celebrate their three years in action.

First Year Anniversary

Draft Cafe had just completed its first year with a successful repertoire and a newly-acquired customer base loyal to every item on the menu. They had commissioned Blue Hat to commemorate the first year with a bang.

Intervention

We started out first with ideation of the event, tackling the brand identity while still thinking of new and exciting ways to commemorate the first year anniversary. After much deliberation with the client, we decided on the “When industrial meets tropical!” theme. Taking into account the industrial look and feel Draft Cafe has, we wanted to maintain it; however, we also wanted to elevate the customer experience. It was summertime, and many of the clients did not travel out of the kingdom. In that way, we presented them with a refreshing experience at the cafe. Another note to be taken into consideration was the new drinks menu, as some were already tested and ready to launch, we wanted to harness the occasion to launch these new summer drinks with a hype.

Results

We brought the island vibes to Draft Cafe as we transformed the venue to the customers’ wildest vacation dreams. Once they stepped into the premises they could feel the vacation vibes with the music bumping hits from Kygo, Sigala, and Robin Schulz. As we wanted to engage all the five senses, customers could also smell the summertime freshness with scents like blood orange, lemongrass essential and more, in addition, of course, to the fresh coffee aroma. 

As the customers’ eyes scan the place, they are welcomed by a huge vegetation wall with a neon sign placed on top of it; it read: “Every summer has its own story”. This is where we implemented storytelling, we wanted the customers to truly feel like they were on vacation, like they were about to have an unforgettable holiday filled with exciting stories they will tell their friends at home when they get back. Other space features included a black metal grid mounted at the cafe as an interactive space, with “Write your wishes for Draft” on the top of it. Guests were able to  write their wishes on the notes and use the small clips to hang them on the grid. It also had a huge #1 hanging on the grid to commemorate the anniversary. Botanical elements are also scattered across the space in the form of huge exotic leaves to keep the vacation ambiance going. 

For customer engagement we had several activities going on; first being the guess & win game where customers can guess answers related to Draft Cafe, in order to win items. Another game was to increase engagement around the new drinks menu and guess the ingredients after they tasted them. One of the exciting games was the wheel of fortune which was for customers who had ordered with an amount above 50 SAR. Every slot on the wheel included freebies or vouchers from the cafe or the store.

Second Year Anniversary

Draft Cafe wanted to provide its customers with a unique sensory experience over four evenings, anchored around the sentiments and preferences of frequent visitors. We aimed to target customers spending the summer in Riyadh who wanted to escape the heat and retreat to a welcoming, calm and cool environment.  

We also had to organize a photoshoot of the anniversary to showcase the event and the accompanying branding on social media.

Intervention

Ideation for the campaign began with social listening and sentiment analysis, which showed that the words “mood” and “draft” were recurrent in a positive and uplifting context. We decided to explore colors and psychology, playing on the feelings and moods of customers. 

Thanks to the soaring heat in Saudi Arabia, the best outings begin after sunset - as did the inspiration for the campaign identity. Each shade of the sunset color palette was associated with a distinct mood or identity: optimistic, sociable, passionate, creative and zen. These colors were used to decorate the interiors of the cafe ahead of the anniversary event and served as inspiration for new staff t-shirts. 

We designed a fully-sensory experience for the anniversary event, beginning with a “personality test” for guests to identify which mood and color suited them best. They also had the opportunity to pose for Instagrammable moments in front of posters and holding props matching their moods. 

Guests were also invited to take their pick from a fridge full of complimentary drinks, each associated with a certain mood and color. Meanwhile, Draft Cafe staff invited guests to play a mini card game involving inspiring quotes, discounts and vouchers. 

Results

We helped design a truly memorable experience at Draft Cafe to celebrate their 2 year anniversary that would stay in the minds of every guest who attended. The brand identity and mood collections were replicated in social media posts celebrating the anniversary and encouraging guests to attend the event.

Around 200 well-known social media influencers attended the event and starred in their own vibrant photoshoots matching the colors and moods of their personality tests. This brought the excitement of the event and unique vibes of Draft Cafe to thousands more potential customers.

Third Year Anniversary

For the third year anniversary, due to the restrictions of the pandemic, a large scale event wasn’t able to happen. So, we collected efforts towards an impactful digital communication strategy, including brand tangibility touchpoints in the branches, while maintaining safety procedures for both the staff and the customers.

Intervention

We created an online marketing campaign where we targeted our customers through narration of Draft Cafe’s trip through the years. We used storytelling to portray the brand’s relationship with its customers and how it evolved with each year to create an unbreakable bond. We engaged users online through social media (specifically Instagram), as well as offline including some brand activations inside the cafes.

Results

One for all the fun, two for all that we went through, and three for the trust & loyalty; that was the core idea of Draft Cafe’s third year anniversary. We want to be able to highlight the three years that have passed and how Draft Cafe’s customers have been accompanying the cafe along the whole journey.

One for all the fun stood for the times Drafters spent at the cafes, letting their creativity run loose, enjoying their favorite cups of coffee, and soaking in the all-around good vibes. Two for all that we went through, to denote the hard year the world has witnessed and how they were able to come through it, while still maintaining the strong brand relationship with the customers. Three for the trust and loyalty to celebrate the three years they had experienced and thank their customers for the push they have given the Draft Cafe team.

We created the digital communication strategy based on the aforementioned concept and followed through with the editorial calendar. The content was all tailored according to the color palette and the theme of the campaign, maintaining the motif of “counting blessings”. For the brand experience, we created Draft Cafe coffee cups with messages at the bottom. Customers would flip their cups to find discounts, surprise upgrades, special treats, and complimentary drinks. This carried on for 3 days at the cafe.

Fourth Year Anniversary

For the fourth year anniversary of Draft, our focus was grounded in showing appreciation to Draft’s thriving community of employees and customers.

Intervention

Strategic aims of the campaign centered around the following:

1. Increasing brand equity to achieve a positive brand association.

2. Increasing brand engagement to deepen bonds with community, customers and staff while increasing IG followers and engagement rate. 

3. Promoting the new menu and driving footfall to Draft’s branches. 

The campaign concept was centered around #4theloveofDraft and realized through the four main pillars of Draft:

1. Coffee: Draft’s passion for coffee. Through showcasing drinks being made, baristas in action, customers’ drinks photos.

2. Creativity: Showcasing people working or creating: ramadan cup campaign, people working, drawing, workshop.

3. Good Cause: Showcasing Draft’s contribution to the community: IWD, Merchants of charity, Zahra, Earth Day, etc.

4. Cool Vibes: Showcasing the atmosphere of the coffee shops through reels: events, pop-ups, open mic nights, MDL Beast, SDW, KSA National Day.

Results

Offline

Installations
A huge #4 shaped-tunnel was installed at the entrance of the Riyadh Front branch to carry the branding of the campaign. Also a series of 3D shaped #4 were installed in all the remaining branches, each focused on one of the main defined pillars: coffee, earth, community, etc.

Bundles & Offerings
To incentivize engagement we created bundles and offerings such as: For any purchase of 4 items, the customer will get the 4th one for free or they will receive a coffee voucher for 40 SAR or 40% off on the next purchase.

In Store Engagement
We designed printable stickers and pins that people could stick on their laptops, phone covers, bags etc. and for employees they had “We’re 4” pins. And encouraged sharing moments at Draft from the event with printables and installations.

Employee Recognition
We also suggested offering employees a “gesture” like special discounts or offers to show appreciation which could be a bonus for their contribution.

Online

Draft’s Journey
The content focused on mentioning an important milestone from every year whether it was opening a new branch, growing the team, taking part in SDW, MDL beast - Winning International Awards.

Main Pillars of the Brand
We also introduced the 4 main pillars of Draft in 4 videos. “4 the Love of: coffee, creativity, a good cause, cool vibes.

IG Stickers
The team also designed fun Instagram stickers so that Draft’s community online could celebrate Draft’s 4th anniversary.

Online Contest (Duration: 4 days)
We also launched a mini competition where we asked our target audience to answer the following 4 questions/requests:

• Name 4 things you love the most about Draft.

• Fill in the blank: 4 the love of ……

• Tag 4 of your coffee buddies 

• What are your favorite 4 items from the menu

A random selection took place via an online tool (winner picker) in order to select 4 winners, one from each question asked, and then the Draft Cafe management decided what to award each of the winners (coupon, 40% discount, retail item etc.)

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