The London Coffee Festival 2015.  Branding v. stand out

Do coffee brands need some decaf?

The London Coffee Festival at the Old Truman Brewery is this year’s showcase for Café Society as it is now - young, brash, eager, knowing and clever.  
There can’t be many retail arenas that have succeeded in combining taste, ethics, skilful preparation and global responsibility into one very singular activity - making and drinking coffee.

Every new trend was on show and amplified to the max. Cold brew, cold press, flake, powders, micro, macro, café chain, including not for profit brand “Charity” and most defiantly for profit café chain Starbucks.

As with all trade shows the newness and vitality can be overwhelming. And sure enough I found that after the first thirty minutes everything started to mash up into one brand look. Lots of hessian, stencil lettering, ever-so-clever whimsical names, visual gymnastics with once ethnic decorative arts and the ‘on your sleeve’ promotion of fair trade.

However, tucked in the corner and looking somewhat out of place I was pleased to see a coffee brand that had clearly decided to be itself and demonstrate it could deliver a vision of coffee and café with a refreshing single-mindedness.  
No nod here to faux ethnic craft or overstated claims on trading ethics.

Alt Wien
The name means “Old Vienna” and like Starbucks is a coffee brand that has grown out of a café experience. 

The proud crisp branding instantly evokes the heritage and tradition of Viennese coffee houses. Where great coffee taste and stylish settings originated. Coffee as affordable luxury and time out of a hectic day.

It would have been easy for Alt Wien to be lazy and fall back into tradition -   become a café museum - but instead the brand, while oozing heritage, still looks contemporary and fresh.

The Alt Wien Stand also stood out at LCF - no hessian or stencils in sight!
Instead they captured the mood music perfectly with playful random images juxtaposed against the tight and determined branding.

http://www.altwien.at

Note to self - next trade show, spend more time looking in the corners!

licence to kill?

Have you seen the Homepride cooking sauces ad yet? If not, take a look. It uses the iconic Fred character - 50 this year don’t you know?! As I remember Fred he was a charming, helpful, friendly chap that knew his grades of flour. And, voiced in ads by the homely sounding Richard Briers (sadly no longer with us)... now that tells you something about his character.



So, back to the ad that aired for the first time over the weekend. It shows a giant Fred - not the small iconic character that we all remember - helping Mum in the kitchen to add a bit of cook in sauce excitement to dishes for the family to enjoy. Nothing particularly wrong with that - except for the fact he’s so huge and a bit wobbly on his feet.

The real trouble comes at the end, when Dad discovers that Fred is taking that excitement a little too far. He is seen in the bathroom with Mum in the bath, readying himself to scrub her back. Now, whilst I think the idea is somewhat tacky (and a little pervy), I can see it might give way to a Carry On style of humour.

But the problem is this: for the past 18 months we’ve been using social media (Facebook & Twitter) to nurture Homepride Flour and its Fred character into that charming, helpful, knowledgeable and lovable being that we want to project for the brand - licensed to Kerry Foods and not strictly owned outright by Premier Foods, who owns Homepride cooking sauce.

So, having nurtured Fred and his character to promote Homepride Flour, we now have the cooking sauces side of the business building a character that has quite a different take on charm and lovability. And particularly with heritage brands that have been off the radar for a few years, they still have emotional values attached. So it’s vital that they are understood and re-presented to a modern audience in a way that retains integrity.

To me, the take on Fred from the sauces side has dangerously ignored what Fred has always stood for and his personality. And all for a cheap laugh.

perky

Look out for our latest launch to hit the shelves - Percol's Perk Up! The two-strong range of luxury coffees have added guarana for a natural lift, which our packaging reflects with an explosion of colour...

flashback friday

We've just come across this great article about a locked cupboard that was forgotten for 40 years, and when it was finally opened recently it revealed a fantastic look straight into FMCG packaging's illustrious past... an accidental museum of brands!

skylights

We recently put together a microsite for our client Aerobility, to promote a chartered flight that would let passengers see the Northern Lights from the air.

Aerobility gives disabled people the chance to fly, and the Aurora flight (from Gatwick to the Shetland Islands) was a fantastic idea to raise money in a spectacular way. The flight was last weekend, and 74 people - including presenters from the BBC's The Sky At Night - were on board. Here's some press coverage and you can see the atmospheric microsite at aerobility.com/aurora.

flip flop

If - like some of us in the studio - you're less of a hit in the kitchen but still want to get involved in Pancake Day this year, then look out for our newly redesigned Green's Pancake Mixes, in all good convenience stores now!

introducing...

... our new Junior Designer, Lun Yau.

Lun studied Graphic Design at Nottingham Trent University and this is his first job in design - when we saw how talented he is we got in there quickly!

Lun cites Dieter Rams - with his "less is more" ethic - as his biggest inspiration in the design world.

As well as branding, print and packaging, Lun's also into digital design - websites & apps - which will definitely make him an asset in the studio.

The one item of packaging he wishes he'd designed is the Lyle's Golden Syrup tin, along with the special editions by Design Bridge (although as a child of the 1990s he's over 100 years too late for the former!).

And besides design, he cycles, loves films and computer games, travels, explores... and makes delicious coffee (which we can now attest to)!

That's all for now, but no doubt you'll be hearing more from Lun in the future.