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Wild Bean Café
BP’s Wild Bean Café’s entry to South Australia.
The Situation. Wild Bean Café is BP’s global café brand and is one of the key strategic brands of BP Retail. Between March and September 2007, 14 Wild Bean Café’s were built in South Australia providing a new option for South Australian consumers to purchase barista made, café quality ‘coffee on the go’.
A key objective of BP Connect and Wild Bean Café’s was to change the way consumers’ view BP forecourts; the aim is to be at the forefront of convenience retailing within and outside of the forecourt retailing arena.
Wild Bean Café’s had been rolled out in Western Australia in 2006 and the campaign for South Australia was able to draw upon the WA campaign and its evaluation while tailoring the activities to the South Australian market.
It was decided that launch activity should not start until 70% of sites were operational and the campaign consequently ran from mid August 2007 until October 2007.
Objectives. Hughes Public Relations was commissioned to lead Wild Bean Café’s brand awareness program in South Australia, working closely with BP and Clarity Communications (the agency who launched the brand into WA).
A key goal of the campaign was to change the perception of service station coffee from:
“A forecourt is not a place I consider going to get a drink or something to eat”
to “When I’m on the road and want to make a quick stop for some quality food and a fresh coffee, I’ll always try and find a Wild Bean Café at BP Connect”.
Two key customer segments were identified: Welcome Breakers (those people who work long hours and spending a high percentage of their time in the car) and Convenience Store Habituals (people who often shop at convenience stores for everything from a snack to groceries).
Among the key objectives set by Hughes Public Relations, BP and Clarity were:
- Drive awareness among the target market that Wild Bean Café is where you can get great quality coffee on the go. Specifically to educate consumers that:
- WBC has arrived in SA;
- WBC stands for quality coffee on the go;
- WBC can be found at BP Connect sites.\ - Drive onsite awareness of the WBC offer and conversion to sales. Specifically:
- Create onsite excitement;
- Incorporate a sampling program. Recommend opportunities for WBC to undertake site specific activities to engage with Welcome Breakers and C-Store Habituals to drive sales.
Elements. Implementation of the communications program consisted of the following key elements:
- Pre-awareness activity to communicate Free Coffee stunt is coming;
- Free Coffee Stunt: 5 working days 6 am to 10 am, mini flat white;
- Local radio partnership:
- To drive additional value on radio advertising spend;
- To reinforce WBC as a ‘local’ coffee option. - Sales promotion: free coffee for a year;
- Outdoor branded vehicles to hand out free coffee cards and raise awareness of WBC brand, including participation in the Bay to Birdwood Classic Run, targeting SANFL games and City to Bay Run;
- Media campaign: billboard placements, TV advertising, radio advertising, community newspaper advertising.
Outcome. All feedback from BP was very positive with more than 8,000 coffees given away during the Free Coffee stunt. Sales increased by 25 per cent in the weeks following the stunt and figures show aided awareness peaked at 72 per cent.
The participation of Wild Bean Café branded cars in the Bay to Birdwood Classic Run was considered a great success with more than 10,000 people attending the finish event at Birdwood National Motor Museum where the branded vehicles were parked and free coffee vouchers given away. Wild Bean Café also provided food for VIP guests and judges.
Other activities involving the WBC branded cars, such as the City to Bay Run which had 27,000 people taking part and targeting attendees to SANFL games, were also considered a success in raising awareness of the WBC brand and launch in South Australia.
As a result of a carefully planned and executed PR strategy, the communications carried key messages and promotional work raised awareness of Wild Bean Café’s presence in South Australia, successfully encouraging customers to visit WBC at BP Connect.
