China is overwhelmingly a nation of tea-drinkers, consuming just 8 coffee cups per-capita annually (against 150 cups in neighboring Hong Kong and 600 in northern Europe.) But the fast-burgeoning “café culture” in recent years, providing a high badge value and social experience, has brought the market a heady caffeine-boosted growth rate at 22% YOY. However, NESCAFÉ, well-known for its humble instant sachet, has been struggling to live up to these aspirational credentials, and as a result to fully capitalize on the available growth - growing at a lackluster 7% YOY.

To accelerate growth in this promising but challenging market, NESCAFÉ needed to enhance its premium credentials and social currency value. Our task was to build NESCAFÉ’s as a trendy, aspirational brand that could allow consumers to enjoy a truly unique experience.

Our objectives were to generate positive buzz of the campaign and increase NESCAFÉ’s brand attributes as a “premium brand”.

To maximize engagement and talk-ability we needed to identify an emotionally-loaded cultural tension. We observed that while China’s rapid development is a great sense of national pride, there is a growing sense of unease over the widening disconnection with the country’s local roots—its past, traditions and culture. This has been particularly noticeable among our target audience—young Chinese urbanites, who are showing a growing interest in traditional culture, making it a central part of their own value and identity.

We found a great opportunity to reconnect people with their local roots. While brands like Starbucks offer a highly standardized experience of modernity and progress, we wanted to offer a different vision of progress, one that proudly celebrates and re-interprets local character. We launched “Sense Café” – a pop-up café in Beijing, China’s cultural capital, by reconstructing an old courtyard into a “multi-sensory time machine” to reconnect with the bygone Beijing.

To engage young novelty-seeking Chinese urbanites, we worked with award-winning architect Ziyu Zhuang to create a truly sensational and premium experience. By transforming the Siheyuan (traditional Beijing quadrangle courtyard) with layers of metal curtains that cast light differently, visitors could walk through the past and now of this 100-year-old space.

We designed a “journey of senses” to reconnect with Beijing cultural roots:

Sight: An immersive experience where visitors interact with moving images of traditional Beijing cultural elements played by a floor screen and reflected by wall mirrors.

Sound: An exhibition of the sounds of old Beijing, such as bicycle bells.

Taste: Unique coffee recipes made using regular NESCAFÉ products inspired by traditional Beijing ingredients (e.g., osmanthus flower syrup).

Smell: Ground coffee beans from different regions placed in snuff bottles (a symbol of old Beijing) for people to smell.

Touch: An exhibition of specially designed brand accessories featuring Beijing cultural symbols.

Every detail of the experience was meticulously crafted to reconnect people with the local culture. We named the coffee recipes with names from Beijing’s unique dialect. Each bespoke drink was paired with a centuries-old traditional Beijing snack made by skilled craftspeople. The menu was printed on a traditional Chinese fan—an important art format of Chinese culture. When people visited each sense exhibit, a unique stamp featured in Chinese calligraphy would be chopped on their tickets to mark the occasion.

We also made sure the exciting offline experience was translated into an online sensation. Before the opening, we released an HTML5 application for online registration with an enticing teaser video. We also invited William Chan, a hugely popular celebrity, as the “Chief Experience Officer” to share personal experience. After the opening, we invited batches of KOLs every day, spreading amazing photos and short videos, making our café an internet hit.

Sense Café Beijing gave NESCAFÉ an exciting, highly trendy image in the eyes of countless young consumers, as the café became a must-see hot spot. Though it was only open for several days, the cafe was visited by over 6,000 people, 30% over our expectation. Online reservations were fully booked, and visitors without pre-bookings queued outside for hours to get a chance to visit. A total of 50 media outlets and 87 KOLs reported on the cafe, generating 1.3 billion impressions and 3.8 million online conversations. NESCAFÉ online brand mention increased by 67%, surpassing Starbucks to become the most talked-about café in China. The “premium brand” attribute also rose by 53%. Sales on the NESCAFÉ e-commerce site, driven by sales of a Sense Cafe “experience kit”, increased by a record 198%.