2024 Gold Customer Programme

Agency: M&C Saatchi

Client: Costa Coffee

Entry Title: Costa Coffee - Treat Drop

Executive Summary

Costa’s loyalty mechanic was becoming a little less generous, so needed to find another way to deliver value to members.

Strategy

Because of the cost-of-living crisis brands were tightening their belts just like consumers. Costa Club would now offer a free coffee after 10 buys, instead of eight.

Simply ramping up promotions to compensate wasn’t a magic bullet; it cannibalised existing occasions or devalued the brand with generic offer spam. The strategy was to create a consistent reward vehicle which would surprise and delight consumers, delivering a small moment of joy in otherwise strained circumstances. The brand would pick a different week each month and drop a tailored reward straight into a consumer’s app, combatting a decline in generosity perceptions and encouraging them into store.

Creativity

The team segmented the Costa Club base into 15 groups and chose rewards encouraging them to try new products which were similar or complimentary to those they already purchased, or prompting new occasions, like visiting at the weekend rather than a weekday. This approach also allowed members to try something that they otherwise might not be able to justify trying, in turn encouraging new behaviours.

The brand looked for inspiration in other categories and were inspired by ‘drops’ in fashion, gaming and music. Treat Drop was born, as was a world with its own discernible visual identity, brand equity, and reason to exist - separating it from other comms or generic offers in the category. The illustrated world was vibrant, uplifting and escapist, with a versatile key visual - the parachute - delivering members Treat Drops straight into their virtual laps.

Leveraging 1-2-1 channels two phases were used: Tease and Launch. The tease would come the week before the drop, building anticipation and excitement. The launch comms would deliver the message via email, push and social, letting members know their Treat Drop had landed in their app and giving a dopamine hit.

Results

Treat Drop engaged the most valuable members: in the first four drops, around 1.4 million Costa Clubbers had redeemed it. On average, this group had +87% higher average transaction frequency and a +89% greater spend per head compared to those who didn’t redeem their Treat Drop.

The campaign drove incremental transactions: 100,000 per drop, and more than 1.5 million in total. It also led to incremental behaviour change; 300,000 members have tried new categories, with 75% repeat purchase.

The Team

M&C Saatchi - Ellie Boxall, Strategy Director - Ben Smith, Senior Strategist - Selena La Fleur, Account Director - Andy Dawson, Senior Copywriter - Eliot Pavesi, Senior Designer - Tom Kennedy, Creative Director - Lydia Simey, Business Director

Costa Coffee - Calum Johns, Senior CRM and Loyalty Manager - Nicky Hardy, Senior CRM and Loyalty Campaign Executive - Mattia Milan, CRM Campaign Manager - Matt Graves, CRM Execution Manager - Bethany Judd, CRM Execution Executive - Simran Gill, CRM Execution Executive - Matt Butcher, Consumer Data Analytics Manager - Dan Hill, Consumer Digital Data Analyst