Keurig Canada has introduced a new ad campaign promoting the newest addition to its line of hot beverage brewing systems.
The new TV, out-of-home and digital “Brewhaha” campaign from Sid Lee promotes the Keurig 2.0 system’s ability to brew a carafe of users’ favourite beverage using the new “K-Carafe” packs.
The new system offers the capability of a traditional coffee maker, with greater ease-of-use.
“It’s a significant change in the way the coffee is brewed and what it offers consumers,” said Sid Lee creative director Brian Gill. “There’s more variety and more control.”
While promoting the new Keurig 2.0 system, the campaign also showcases the variety of flavour and drink options that have helped Keurig control the bulk of Canada’s estimated $725 million coffee pod business.
A series of billboard ads show the Keurig 2.0 system surrounded by coffee cups of various colours and shapes, all arranged in a variety of geometric shapes. A recent Halloween-themed ad showed black and orange cups arranged in the shape of a pumpkin, while a holiday-themed ad sees the cups arranged in the shape of a snowman.
A TV spot shows people composing a rhythmic beat using coffee cups, interspersed with shots of the new Keurig 2.0 system.
Sid Lee and Celsius Communications also created an event at Toronto’s Dundas Square where consumers were invited to use the Keurig 2.0 system. As some people used the device, seemingly random groups including street musicians, office workers and construction workers began creating a beat using whatever was at hand, including coffee cups, wheelbarrows and briefcases.
But while the campaign is colourful and whimsical, the new 2.0 system is at the centre of a brewing legal battle between Keurig’s parent company Keurig Green Mountain and other coffee companies.
Keurig’s rivals accuse the company of preventing customers from being able to use anything but its own specially coded coffee packs in the machine. In October, Club Coffee launched a $600 million lawsuit against Keurig accusing the company of engaging in anti-competitive practices.
Club Coffee recently launched a website, FreeTheBeans.ca, urging consumers to write to the Competition Bureau and Minister of Industry James Moore to complain.
“Consumers won’t win when Keurig dictates what we have to use. Consumers won’t win when Keurig locks out successful competitors,” said one section of the site. “It’s time to fight back. It’s time for Canadians to tell the Government of Canada to ‘Free the Bean!’”
Keurig could not be reached for comment.
