If you’re reading this entry while drinking coffee you’d be in the minority in China, where the coffee category is in its infancy at just three cups per person per year.

NESCAFÉ, as a China market leader in soluble coffee, simultaneously faces huge opportunity and a big threat:

• Growing very low coffee category penetration in China – or inviting new users in through the “front door”, and

• Having a big target on their back for new and existing competition – or losing consumers through the “back door”.

Our brief from NESCAFÉ was to maximize the front door opportunity, prevent share loss from the back door challenge, and celebrate the brand’s 75th anniversary.

Our response was the social content marketing campaign: “There is no boundary in the world with a cup of coffee.” This campaign demonstrated NESCAFE´'s leading image worldwide as an enabler of coffee's global popularity and successfully motivated more Chinese consumers to drink coffee to connect with the world.

Our campaign achieved double digit NESCAFÉ sales growth over the prior year period for two successive months, outperforming the category’s single digit growth. Market share grew 1.7% over the campaign period. A campaign evaluation showed double digit uplift in brand metrics among those exposed to the campaign from a previous declining trend. Non-coffee drinkers’ purchase intent was 2.3% higher than coffee drinkers proving we had expanded the category.

Our documentaries featured opinion leader, Han Han, as an "explorer" discovering the rich culture of coffee and the NESCAFE´ brand. The films showed the lives, human values, and emotions attached to coffee as a “borderless language".

Each film highlighted a significant place for global coffee culture and NESCAFÉ:

• Brazil: The world’s largest coffee producer,

• France & Italy: The holy lands of coffee culture for Chinese consumers,

• Switzerland: The home of Nestlé’s headquarters,

• Yunnan: A coffee-producing province in western China.

Surrounding the content was a thorough publishing ecosystem:

• Reach: Promote the videos on China’s key video platforms: Youku, Sina, Iqiyi,

• Engage: Campaign page on Sina Weibo to engage with consumers through interactive online games; motivate consumer participation through daily tweets,

• Enrich: Create product relevance through a PC/mobile APP,

• Amplify: Extend campaign influence to other influential SNS platforms.

Our campaign achieved double digit NESCAFÉ sales growth over the prior year period for two successive months, while market share grew 1.7% over the campaign period, reversing previous competitive gains.

A post-campaign measurement study revealed that among consumers exposed to this campaign, NESCAFÉ purchase intent was 2.3% higher among non-coffee drinkers compared to coffee drinkers.

NESCAFÉ brand favourability and purchase intent improved by 21.1% and 6.8% respectively among consumers exposed to the content.

These results were achieved through brand fame achieved through social media engagement:

• The NESCAFÉ World Coffee Tour documentary generated 35 million views.

• NESCAFÉ Sina Weibo fans grew 150% from 327,000 to 818,000; NESCAFÉ Sina Weibo’s engagement rate was 8.1% at peak, 1.01% on average, significantly outperforming NESCAFÉ’s global online community KPI of 0.5%.

• The fun app attracted 70,000 participants.

• Seeding on other SNS platforms generated 5.5 million impressions.