We decided to pay tribute to the historical tradition of Swedish coffee culture by letting cities battle for the prestigious award in becoming Sweden’s best fika-city. During five weekends in May-June 2009, two cities challenged each other in gathering as many people as possible to one, united coffee break event in their city centre. Before every battle, selected local opinion leaders were equipped with material to promote the battle via their own channels. Media was informed about the battle and provided with local results from a fika survey. The whole campaign was also available online via live streaming.

Suddenly people themselves wanted to participate in the sampling, which is the complete opposite of traditional methods. The campaign generated a total of 23,851 coffee guests, 142 media clippings with over 70 bloggers, an estimated reach of a third of Sweden’s population. The ambassadors sent over 30 000 invites via Facebook and several hundreds of comments were posted in Facebook groups and blogs. When it comes to being the perfect fika coffee, Gevalia was ranked 33 percent higher among those who had visited the event, compared to the national average. By celebrating Swedish coffee culture, Gevalia managed to connect with coffee drinkers all over the nation and “Sweden’s largest fika” became the battle that every Swede wanted to win.