Second Cup

The objective

Thinking outside the cup to connect with Gen-Z and Millennials

Second Cup started as a small coffee kiosk in 1975 peddling only whole bean coffee. Fast forward to today, its evolved as one of Canada's top specialty coffee retailers. Staying in sync with the latest trends around April Fool's, the brand looked to TikTok to earn brand love amongst a younger generation who didn't have a personal connection with Second Cup. With an aim to break through and make an impact on the platform, they hatched an offbeat plan focused on brewing up laughs with coffee lovers nationwide.

The solution

Steaming up upper funnel goals with TikTok’s branded solutions and creative tools

Eager to stir up some fun, Second Cup, in partnership with their creative agency Dreww, executed a unique, attention-grabbing campaign as an April Fool’s prank that landed well with Gen-Z and Millennial coffee aficionados in Canada. Their plan? A fa-brew-lous stunt where the brand pretended to launch out of the ordinary flavoured drinks like Peanut Butter & Jelly Swirl Smoothie, Everything Bagel Latte, and Maple Bacon Explosion Frocho. The twist? All these concoctions were brewed up by Chat GPT, adding a dash of artificial intelligence to the mix.

To resonate with the TikTok audience, who often engage with humorous and relatable content, their creative was designed as a skit, with independent actors hired to unveil the new flavours. To make the prank seem believable, Second Cup deployed a multi-faceted approach using TikTok-first tactics like Green Screen, which helped to stimulate a behind-the-scenes look, building authenticity and entertainment value. Quick editing techniques like seamless looping were also applied to grasp attention and boost view times.

To hit their brand objectives, Spark Ads were chosen as the go-to marketing solution. Spark Ads enables brands to leverage organic TikTok posts from their own account as well as posts from other creators, as ads. This unique format helps brands to establish trust ​​and improve customer retention.

The results

Raising the cup to a toasty success!

The campaign nailed the perfect blend of wit and platform-first creative. The eccentric ‘new drinks’ announcement was both attention-grabbing and shareable, contributing to virality. The numbers came in hot, delivering over 934,000 video views, with a whopping 660,164 impressions, and a frothy reach of 476,444! The comments section turned into a caffeinated frenzy with an engaged coffee loving TikTok audience eagerly asking about the drinks’ availability, questioning if they were real, and casting votes on which one out of the three they were most likely to order.

By showing up as an active member of the TikTok community, Second Cup's unique campaign and creative idea, effectively connected with new audiences, delivering powerful engagement with results roasted to perfection. Now that's a winning cuppa coffee!