Caribou Coffee is the second-largest coffee chain in the world. To better communicate the soul of the brand and differentiate Caribou from its more-corporate competitors, we set out to completely relaunch the brand. The founders’ original tagline, “Life is short. Stay awake for it.” had become diluted as other taglines were introduced through the years, and the seize-the-day spirit of the brand became a forgotten story. The new brand positioning expands the original meaning behind the line, giving Caribou an opportunity to continually remind people there’s a lot to stay awake for — and a good cup of coffee sure helps. Design note: Hand-lettered typography was used throughout the campaign.

We warmed up commuters braving frigid temperatures by converting transit shelters into stainless-steel ovens using real heaters and working clocks. We also seeded the idea to culture and food blogs.

The rebranding helped drive Caribou Coffee’s stock price up more than 400% in 2010 (while at the same time, the recession was causing many to ditch their coffee habits). Store traffic increased by 6 percent with net sales improving by 9.4 percent.

The campaign also created a new sense of excitement and buzz around the Caribou Coffee brand. Hundreds of millions of impressions were created with coverage in everything from Fast Company to perezhilton.com. And since the launch, Facebook fans have increased six-fold.