A hummable tune and perfect social media imagery. Cafe Coffee Day?s debut TV commercial has all the right ingredients to connect with the urban youth
Campaign: Sit Down
Brand: Cafe Coffee Day
Company: Amalgamated Bean Coffee Trading Co. Ltd
Agency: Creativeland Asia
The Campaign
The film starts with a young guy sitting in a Cafe Coffee Day (CCD) outlet saying how protesting, taking out morchas and the youth being told to stand up for something or the other doesn?t make sense. He suggests that people should instead sit down and discuss things and find a way forward. This is then shown to turn into a social media movement with youngsters all over tweeting, sending comments on Facebook, posting pictures and videos about ?sit-downs? at CCDs. The ad?s anthem is hummed by different individuals across CCDs as they mention various reasons to sit down and talk. The film ends with the voice-over: ?Sit down Yaar! A lot can happen over coffee. Cafe Coffee Day.?
Our Take
For our increasingly urbane and aspirational population, particularly the seemingly vibrant and teeming youth, a cafe means just so much more than gulping down copious doses of coffee. Just think about it. Coffee shops have developed into social hotspots and arenas, lending geography to friendships, debates, discussions, reconciliations, beginnings, ends, and everything else in between. That?s where the newly released TV ad by Cafe Coffee Day (CCD), the first ever in its 16-year-old existence touches a chord. It?s an ad with an uber cool, youth-oriented look and feel to it. And the central theme, of asking people to sit down over a cup of coffee to discuss and sort out issues, rather than going for stand-ups that often leads to stand-offs, is an interesting angle which further strengthens the cafe?s brand identity of a venue that facilitates interaction. It?s also clearly in line and an incremental extension of CCD?s age old tagline: ?A lot can happen over coffee?. CCD re-establishes its stated and intended identity through this ad without diluting the campaign message.
A word on the creative execution now. Social media has come to be one of the favourite elements being used by youth-oriented brands in their TVCs. Airtel and MTS are recent examples that come first to the mind. For these two brands, it?s a natural association with their services sectors. The CCD ad too employs social media as a visual element, and manages to make it work in its favour at various levels. For one, the urban youth are perhaps the most active social media users in India giving the audience an instant connect. The execution reflects a well-thought out creative with almost every frame of the TVC employing one or the other popular social media website as a backdrop, adding another visually appealing dimension to the frame. Such visual effects often run the risk of looking shoddy on screen, but that?s certainly not the case in this ad. The anthem too is a hummable composition, not overbearing in sound or content, it?s not preachy, and is simple and likeable. The ad evokes myriad emotions and invites the audience to identify itself with the ad. It can be termed as guilty of hopping onto the social media bandwagon nevertheless, but as long as it?s doing it in a way different and superior to most others, it?s not really a problem. All in all, it?s a sweet little affable commercial with its heart in the right place and so is its message and its delivery. Definitely a good debut for CCD on the TV screen. Guess a lot really can happen over coffee, and even around it.
