Costa Shares Two Memorable Moments

We’ve a special offer for Ad Of The Week readers this week – two for the price of one deal from Costa Coffee’s new “Made with Heart” campaign and creative platform. It launched last month with these two slice-of-life ads from WPP Open X (led by VML UK) and they both scored very well on Test Your Ad. So we’re putting both of them in our spotlight, as it’s a fine example of how a strong idea can be executed consistently across ads, but taking viewers on two quite different emotional journeys.

The central theme of “Made with Heart” is moments of sharing. Sharing a coffee creates a space and a moment in a busy life, offering a chance to catch up, take stock or just enjoy a connection. And since we know that human connection and together-ness make for great, effective, emotional advertising, the theme is also a way Costa can make an impact with viewers.

In the first ad, “Delivery”, we’re following a delivery driver as he ends his nighttime shift and picks up a coffee for his partner, a nurse, who’s leaving home for work. He’s able to give her a lift and share a coffee and some precious quality time with her. The ad’s shot in a lowkey, naturalistic style which makes the characters and their moments together feel authentic, with a lovely “hero shot” of the Costa Coffee itself to aid brand fluency.

The second ad, “University”, keeps this same style but tells a different kind of story. Where “Delivery” was a wistful but positive love story, “University” deals with and resolves sadness, taking the audience on an emotional journey (as our moment-by-moment Test Your Ad FaceTrace shows). As a young woman says goodbye to her Mum and sets off for Uni for the first time, the viewers can empathise with both women’s worry and the loneliness that comes with such a big life change.

The new student gets a ping on her phone, though, and visits Costa to pick up the free latte her Mum’s shared, FaceTiming her mum as she shares the moment with her. The ad ends with another nervous newcomer walking through the Costa door and making eye contact with the woman: perhaps it won’t be so hard to make friends after all? As with “Delivery”, there’s a big role for the product and there’s also a demonstration of the Costa app’s gifting feature.

The stories are different, the journeys they take us on are different, but the vibe and focus on sharing and special moments are the same. And the Test Your Ad scores show the benefits of that consistency. Both ads earn a strong long-term Star Rating – 4.4-Stars for “University” and 4.5-Stars for “Delivery” – and both also get a strong short-term Spike Rating. “Delivery” excels on Brand Fluency with an exceptional score, but “University” isn’t far behind.

In other words, these are both very effective ads, and together make for an excellent launch for the “Made with Heart” platform. At System1 we tend to focus on the more obvious elements of creative consistency, like Fluent Devices. But consistency of approach, idea and style matters a lot too, and Costa’s ads show how it works to build a campaign from the ground up.