Today, we’re ranking coffee ads from 9 different coffee shops. Watch the full video right here and read the transcript below.
What’s going on? We’re going to be ranking these 9 different social media coffee ads.
Coffee Ads: Tier List
And to give you an idea, it’s going to be ranked into 4 different sections where our top section, if it’s Brewtiful, it is the cream of the crop. Something that should get you within the spectrum of the top 20% of performance on Facebook. And then Espresso Yourself, it’s the ad where it’s able to do a good job of expressing itself that’s under an acquisition prism. Then Day Old Coffee, it’s okay, we’ll drink it but we won’t brag about it to our friends. And then Depresso is bottom of the pack where you shouldn’t be expecting big results at least from an acquisition standpoint, where all these ratings are under an acquisition prism. They are not under a brand prism.
So if it’s good for brand, that doesn’t necessarily mean that we’re going to rank it a top performer for acquisition. By the way, everything is alphabetically ordered. And then if you want to see these specific videos that we’re going to be going over, you can be able to see them after this video. And they are all going to be listed the same way alphabetically ordered as we are going to go through each one.
Blue Bottle Coffee
So the first one is Blue Bottle, and that is Brewtiful. Not only does it give a great introduction, so you have a powerful visual of coffee, but it also does a good job of using social proof where it says the best coffee subscription for 2021 CNN underscored. So we get a great, powerful visual. Then we immediately know that they’re selling coffee and it is a coffee subscription service. Good job storytelling there.
And then it improves its storytelling. So where it gives more in depth where “experts taste our coffee before it’s shipped to you,” (and) “hand selected beans from around the globe.” And these visuals that they’re incorporating are strengthening what the coffee is. So it is a very strong story throughout. Not only do you know that you’re getting good coffee that’s top rated, but it’s hand selected. Great visuals there. We do get that strong messaging, exactly what the benefit of the ad is quickly. Then it does a great job of storytelling from there.
Caribou Coffee
Cool, so let’s go to Caribou Coffee. So Caribou Coffee is Day Old Coffee. This may be cool from a branding standpoint by having all the coffee go in the middle, but it doesn’t tell me anything special about the coffee. For all I know it could just be Folger’s and it doesn’t tell me anything about the taste. It’s really kind of cool for branding, but in terms of acquisition, it doesn’t give the audience a deep understanding as to why they should care. They’re more likely just to see it, scroll past and then hopefully be able to buy it in your grocery store, which is then going to be hard to be able to attribute specifically to that ad.
Café Bustelo
This doesn’t tell me anything about the coffee at all, except that if I have it, maybe I’ll be cool, maybe I’ll be hip. But I need more of a reason to actually click on that than to be hip. Unless it does a great job of having like Tom Cruise or a big celebrity, then just branding from itself is really hard to do (unless if you’re throwing down millions and millions and millions of dollars). But acquisition, no go.
The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf
Let’s get into the Coffee Bean. So it’s a good visualization where it starts off and then it really does well. I’ve heard that it’s selling. . . Cookie Butter Latte, which by the way, that sounds really, really good. And I think that is a strong visualization, or it’s a good visualization of them going through the community. And it’s on the borderline of Brewtiful. The one thing I would say, that it’s spent a little bit too much time going to that visualization.
Actually, you know what? On the fly, it was borderline for me because the community that they send you into isn’t necessarily directly tied to the product, which is a little bit more tied towards branding. However, if you’re looking for a deeper visualization of what Cookie Butter Latte is, that’s actually a really good expression by going through that community and having that visual. So I would go to Brewtiful, good job on there. I think that you may spend a little bit too much money in that production, but it does look Brewtiful.
Maxwell House
Now we’re going to go to Maxwell Coffee, and I know this one right away. What they do in this ad is very clever. They’re not talking about the flavor of the coffee. All they’re simply talking about, as it goes down, is that coffee gives you energy and their coffee is going to give you energy. So from a branding standpoint, if that’s based off of how I perceive Maxwell Coffee where its use is strictly energy not taste, good job. Brewtiful.
Nescafé
All right. Nescafé. So one thing I’m going to talk about at the beginning of Nescafé, we’re going to put it in Day Old Coffee. So this leans towards branding. However, if you’re doing acquisition, this is something you do not want to do. I would not recommend leading with the brand logo because of how important this opening scene is. It doesn’t tell us much about the coffee.
Having multiple visuals does give you a slightly deeper understanding than just showing a regular coffee cup, but it’s nothing really powerful. Maybe at the end, they just show you the different coffee that they’re selling. And it’s a little bit difficult to be able to comprehend exactly what flavors they have as well. They don’t really talk about their flavors that much either. The only time that you have is when the person’s sipping the coffee. I guess that means it’s good. Or maybe they’re just a caffeine addict and they’re getting their fix. But Day Old Coffee, nothing special for me.
Peet’s Coffee
Let’s go on to Peet’s. If testimonials are your best video, typically that means that the rest of your videos aren’t that strong because anybody can be able to talk about your product. Talk is cheap and visualizations are definitely going to be a very powerful tool. Especially for coffee, where there’s so many deep visualizations that you can be able to do to get the audience excited with their taste buds. But having someone just talk is a very bland way of doing it. Maybe for like B2B, it’s a little bit more applicable, but to me, this is just weak.
I know he’s a roast master, but I want to see what makes you different. I want to know what makes you different rather than somebody who works for you, talking about how great you are. And I’m saying that from the audience’s consumption mindset. So Peet’s Coffee, even though you get a high portion of what I earn and as one of my favorite places, your ads just are Depresso.
Philz Coffee
Let’s go on to Philz coffee, where it says new. I don’t even know what that is new for. It tells me nothing about the coffee. Depresso. I have to be very aware of who Philz is in order to click on this, because you’re not even talking about different flavors that are being offered. All you’re talking about is gratitude and coffee. Maybe some of your audience will have gratitude.
Starbucks
Let’s get into the last one, which is Starbucks. And I’m really familiar with this one as well. From a branding standpoint, this could be doing much better. Starbucks is at the level where they can be able to specifically gear towards branding and having a family community that’s built around Starbucks is something they definitely want to be able to invest in, in terms of a brand standpoint. However, this is under an acquisition standpoint. What does it tell us immediately for us to be able to click on the ad? And this is Day Old Coffee. There’s something I like about it, they’re doing a well job in terms of having captions. So I think if it did not have captions, we won’t even know what they’re talking about — the coffee cups, but it would be just immensely weaker. But yeah, I would put it there.
Final Thoughts
And then in terms of the top of the top — Brewtiful, Blue Bottle is my favorite and at the lowest of lows… You know what? Philz Coffee would be at the lowest of lows. It doesn’t even tell us anything about the coffee,. It’s just “have gratitude and purchase from them.” You don’t even know what type of coffee is being advertised, or maybe I just have terrible eyesight and I can’t read the packaging, very possible. Anyways, let me know if you guys would change up the rankings.
The reason for Espresso Yourself, originally, I had the Coffee Bean down at Espresso Yourself. But after watching it a few more times, it does make sense that it is able to get to that deeper understanding so the audience has a deeper quench for their Cookie Butter Latte. Let me know if there’s any adjustments that you guys would have, if it’s right, if it’s wrong and let us know the comments below.
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