Upstart premium coffee brand Caribou Coffee wanted to reach Millennials with its newest coffee blend, which would join its current offering of more than 20 roasts and blends.

The roastmaster’s “recipe” for the coffee was created with a hand-picked set of images from Caribou fans, sourced through Pinterest using #InspireCaribou. Then the new roast was unveiled through a 64-foot-tall living Pinterest board within the Mall of America. Caribou fans could share photos using #CaribouInspires to display them within the pins on the living Pinterest board.

This campaign delivered. Most importantly, in-store traffic hit year-over-year highs by 7 percent – a remarkable number for the coffeehouse. Additionally, Caribou received nationwide media relations results and engaged its fans on social media channels, including Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.

Caribou Coffee asked fans on Pinterest to share their most inspirational images using #InspireCaribou. Roastmasters then selected images, creating a “recipe” from which they created Real Inspiration Blend.

We engaged Pinterest’s partner team to launch the coffee with the following elements:

• A 5-story-high vinyl Pinterest board graced the Mall of America rotunda for two weeks.

• This living Pinterest board included screens showcasing user-generated images in real time, as they were tweeted or Instagrammed by fans using #CaribouInspires.

• A case study video of how the living Pinterest board was made.

• Media pitching to national and regional print, broadcast, radio and online outlets.

• Populating an online Pinterest board, visually telling fans the story of how the blend was created, at CaribouInspires.com.

• A media event, with a roastmaster explaining the origin of the new coffee to local media.

• Print advertisements, driving traffic to CaribouInspires.com.

• Social media posted to engage fans.

Media impressions—and customers’ moods hit an all-time high.

Social feeds were flooded with customers’ photos of their cups and napkins. Online conversations soon followed. Some of the messaging even inspired fan mail. Caribou’s Cups and napkins were clearly distinguishable from others in the market. As a result, new media impressions and consumer engagement hit an all-time high.