These are three of the YCN Briefs that stood out for me, I got these off the YCN website (www.ycn.org).
Douwe Egberts
Generate excitement about Douwe Egberts coffee, and create a desire for better coffee at home
Background
Douwe Egberts has been roasting and blending coffee since Egberts Douwes opened his first shop in the Netherlands, in 1753. Since then it’s grown and become the third largest coffee roaster in the world. In countries like the Netherlands, Germany and France, Douwe Egberts ground coffee enjoys a commanding market presence, and in the Netherlands it outsells even Coca-Cola!
Douwe Egberts came to the UK in 1984 with a range of instant coffees and two years later brought it’s ground coffees to market. With its established heritage in Europe and superior quality, Douwe Egberts Ground coffee quickly became the market leader in the UK. Never one to rely on its heritage, Douwe Egberts has been at the forefront of innovation, and created the single serve coffee segment with the launch of the Senseo system in 2001.
Over the last 10 years, Douwe Egberts have tried to maintain relevance with consumers, through new products such as the Inspirations range of Instant coffee, and the new-look range of ‘Lifestyle’ ground coffee. In the last year, we have also launched our new brand identity, with the hope of appealing to younger consumers. Most recently we have launched ‘The Flavour Collective’ – a range of three flavoured instant coffees designed to bring variety for coffee lovers and engage younger consumers with instant coffee.
Coffee, and more broadly hot drinks are becoming the territory of older drinkers, and that is particularly true for Douwe Egberts. Our main consumers are 50+ with very few younger people choosing to drink coffee at home.
Background to the Business
For more than 250 years, the company and the Douwe Egberts brand have been synonymous with high quality coffee. This global company is one of the largest dedicated players in the industry, with revenues of €2.6bn for the fiscal year ending in July 2011 and almost 7,500 employees. They are the third largest manufacturer in the world with ambitions to move up to second place through a combination of expansion, innovation and value-added offerings. Their craftsmanship and knowledge of coffee is built on decades of experience and insight into our consumers’ preferences.
This is a highly competitive industry; the brand’s ambitious plans for growth are underpinned by ‘Challenger’ and innovative thinking.
Background to the Category
Over the past five years, world retail coffee sales have grown year on year by almost 8%, growth has come from every segment within premium coffee sales. The wider availability of high-quality coffee, the fact that most High Streets now have up-market coffee shops and more knowledgeable consumers keen to sample different varieties of coffee are the primary drivers of growth.
The Douwe Egberts Brand in the UK
This brief covers Douwe Egberts coffee in the UK. The brand in the UK has a retail value of £64m. The largest part of the portfolio is Instant coffee valued, followed by Ground coffee and then Single Serve Pods.
The brand in the UK has a mission to ‘Challenge and disrupt the category by building a dynamic brand that consumers love’.
The brand vision is to ‘Inspire and surprise shoppers and consumers to discover and explore the brand’s coffee experiences’.
Brand positioning: Coffee is one of life’s pleasures. Here at Douwe Egberts our master blenders draw on 250 years of experience to bring you the distinguished coffee experience you deserve.
Brand essence: No one knows coffee like we do.
The brand behaviours: Passionate, confident, daring, knowledgeable, expert, optimistic, authentic, warm, trustworthy, engaging, ‘Challenger’, brave, modern traditional, premium, versatile, loyal.
Brand assets: Heritage (250 years of expertise), roasting and blending expertise,the brand name, iconic packaging, master blenders.
The brand acts as a ‘Challenger’ brand, believing ideas are the currency that fund growth, they outsmart rather than outspend. Trying to do more with less is a thought central to the brand’s ‘Challenger’ approach. As the brand isn’t market leader they make sure they make their stamp by being ‘Thought Leader’ in the category.
The Challenge
As the drinks market becomes even bigger, with different kinds of water, energy drinks, fruit teas and infusions, coffee is becoming ever-more sidelined at home, and the coffee shops are picking up that custom. Douwe Egberts coffee has a lot of ‘love’ from people, and a high awareness of the brand name, but people tend to associate it with their parents and grandparents, and the special coffee that gets bought at Christmas. Because of this, the DE brand is seen as old-fashioned, out of touch, and irrelevant to consumers. Whilst our 250 years of heritage are what make us special, it also makes us look old!
We have recently become a pure-play coffee & tea company, DE Masterblenders 1753. This means that now we are totally focussed on creating excellence in every cup of coffee we make. We employ some of the best blenders, roasters and tasters in our business, who live & breathe coffee every day. See the links section to find out more on our website.
The Brief
Develop a creative campaign, new product, new packaging or communications idea for Douwe Egberts in the UK to appeal to younger consumers, to increase their awareness of Douwe Egberts and ideally have a theme that can extend across different media. It needs to present Douwe Egberts as a brand that is contemporary, without losing its heritage and expertise. We know that people in the 18-30 age bracket will happily spend their money in a Starbucks or a Costa, but not drink coffee at home. The challenge in this brief is to find a way of making coffee drunk at home as appealing as coffee drunk in a coffee shop.
Creative Requirements
To get younger people to re-appraise or discover the Douwe Egberts brand. Generate excitement about Douwe Egberts coffee, and create a desire for better coffee at home using any form of communication you feel appropriate. Get younger people talking about Douwe Egberts Coffee in a positive way, and try to shake the ‘old-fashioned’ image, without losing the heritage and expertise.
You can incorporate ‘For the Love of Coffee’ or ‘No-one knows Coffee like we do’ (our taglines) into the piece, but that is not essential. The new brand identity, logo and packs can be found in the project pack.
Target Audience
Coffee Lovers & Coffee Connectors. 25+, demographic classification ABC1, educated, a thirst for knowledge, curious, pursuers of pleasure, like to travel, experimental, foodies, passionate, love life, pay for quality.
Brand Benefits
At Douwe Egberts, we’ve been roasting and blending coffee for over 250 years, which means nobody knows coffee like we do. Every cup of our coffee is expertly blended, roasted and tasted by our Master Blenders to ensure that it’s perfect before it leaves our factory.
Mandatories
The DE logo (red seal + wording) must be used, this is included in the Project Pack. The Brand Guidelines that you’ll find in the Project Pack refer to our corporate logo so please disregard this and just use the relevant information within the guidelines.
The creative/campaign/product must bring a modern/contemporary feel to the brand.
Deliverables, Artwork and Additional Information
For guidance on how to submit your work, please adhere to the main deliverables information which can be found here.
Any additional supporting information referenced in the brief can be found in the supporting project pack.
Lego
Create a campaign for the LEGO Brand that distinguishes LEGO from all competitors
Background
The LEGO history began 80 years ago in 1932 in Denmark, when Ole Kirk Christansen founded a small factory for wooden toys in the unknown town of Billund in the south of the country.
To find a name for his company he organised a competition among his employees. As fate would have it however, he himself came up with the best name: LEGO – a fusion of the Danish words “LEg” and “GOdt” meaning “play well”.
Barely 15 years later Christiansen discovered plastic as the ideal material for toy production, and bought the first injection moulding machine in Denmark. His courage, input and investment paid off: in 1949 he developed the LEGO brick prototype, which continues to excite countless children and adults to this very day.
Over the years he perfected the brick, which is still the basis of the entire LEGO building system today. Of course there have been small adjustments in shape, colour and design from time to time, but today’s LEGO bricks still fit bricks from 1958.
The Product
LEGO is a line of toys featuring colourful plastic bricks, gears, minifigures and other pieces which can be assembled to create models of almost anything imaginable. Cars, planes, trains, buildings, castles, sculptures, ships, spaceships, and even working robots are just part of a very short list of the many things that can be built with LEGO bricks.
Since it began producing plastic bricks, the LEGO Group has released thousands of play sets themed around Space, Robots, Pirates, Knight’s, Dinosaurs, Cities, Wild West, Ferrari, Trains, Spider, Superheroes, Star Wars, Harry Potter, Buildable Figures and much more.
LEGO has something for every age from Pre-School range Duplo through to LEGO Technic - more advanced and complex models with movable parts, and machines with wheels.
Since starting life as a simple brick LEGO has diversified into other toy categories the two latest being LEGO Games and LEGO Friends.
Lego Games were launched in 2009 and are a range of board games, all of which use Lego bricks. They use the Lego concept of building to encourage players to change and adapt the rules of the games.
With the latest launch is LEGO Friends, a range designed to appeal primarily to girls. Introduced in 2012, the theme includes unique “mini-doll” figures, which are about the same size as the traditional minifigures but are more detailed and realistic. The sets include pieces in pink and purple colour schemes and depict scenes from suburban life set in the fictional town of Heartlake City. For more information on the latest product ranges please visit: lego.com
What makes our bricks different from the competition?
Emotion:
LEGO has great sentimental value to parents; many kids have boxes of bricks that have been passed down to them from their parents and their grandparents and most parents remember playing with LEGO when they were a child.
In a poll carried out by Bounty.com Lego is the “heritage” toy most likely to be passed on to future generations. Two-thirds of adults said they wanted to pass on their childhood toys to their own offspring and 42% said their children owned at least one toy that was originally theirs.
It’s because Lego isn’t just a plastic bricks, but an experience, a tool for parents and children to spend quality time together building the latest LEGO set.
Functional:
LEGO also has some great functional benefits. LEGO is among some of the best developmental toys that money can buy. A set of blocks can help children develop:
- Motor skills and hand-eye coordination
- Spatial skills
- Creative problem-solving skills
- Social skills
- Language skills
- Complex block-play is linked with advanced math skills in later life
This is because LEGO has:
- Superior quality building blocks - because of the “clutch power” i.e. the stickability of the bricks as the models stay together when built and don’t fall apart when building or when built.
- Very easy to understand instruction booklets – these are step by step pictorial booklets, so that kids don’t have any complicated words or instructions to read.
- An easy build for first time builders – product is in separate bags inside the boxes, which are numbered in the order that they need to be opened and constructed. eg they can just build the Police helicopter one day and then move on to building the Police station the next.
- We know from research that if kids have a bad first building experience it can put them off construction toys for life.
- Iconic and highly collectable minifigures – everyone loves and knows the LEGO minifigure and even though these have been copied by other brands they are just not the same.
The Issue - Brand Genericide
“When a particular product/brand combination so dominates the market that its brand name becomes the generic term for the item.”
Not all bricks are LEGO bricks but not all consumers realise this. Due to our phenomenal success in the toy market.
- LEGO is now the second largest toy manufacturer
- And the No.1 construction toy manufacturer with an 84% share
There have been lots of copycat toys introduced, some of which are of a much lesser quality than LEGO. Some examples of these competitors are:
Being the No.1 Brand in an increasingly cluttered market has meant that consumers, particularly parents and gift givers, have become extremely confused over which products are LEGO and which products are produced by our competitors. With purchasers often asking in store where the LEGO Halo or LEGO Transformers is kept.
This is an issue for LEGO:
As we don’t want kids to have a bad first building experience with one of our competitors, think that it is LEGO and put them off LEGO for the rest of their lives. Particularly as there are so many benefits to building with LEGO.
The Creative Challenge
To create a campaign for the LEGO Brand that distinguishes LEGO from all the other construction toys in the toy market by highlighting the benefits and points of difference of LEGO rather than the detriments of our competitors.
The campaign should encompass the LEGO brand values and take advantage of LEGO’s heritage and strong brand equity within the UK.
Mission: Inspire and develop the builders of tomorrow.
Vision: Inventing the future of play.
Play Promise: Joy of building, pride of creation.
Brand Values:
- Imagination
- Creativity
- Fun
- Learning
- Caring
- Quality
Media
The campaign idea must be highly creative and integrated, potentially making use of multi-media channels. Whilst TV advertising should not be excluded from the proposal, bear in mind the budgets, resources and time that would be required to create and develop a TV campaign from scratch.
Target Audience
Primary Target:
- Parents of boys aged 5-10
Secondary Target:
- Parents of girls aged 5-10
- Gift Givers
Mandatories
- The LEGO logo and corporate visual identity must be used, please refer to the supporting documents.
- The LEGO Brand guideline must be followed, please refer to the supporting documents.
- Lego has bespoke fonts which we’re unable to provide in the Project Pack due to licensing so please simply choose a replacement font that is similar. Lego uses Verdana for web use only, and this font is widely available.
- Please note, also included in the project pack are some examples of past LEGO campaigns.
Deliverables, Artwork and Additional Information
For guidance on how to submit your work, please adhere to the main deliverables information which can be found here.
Any additional supporting information referenced in the brief can be found in the supporting project pack.
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UK Greetings
Design a range of greetings cards
Background
Imagine seeing your card designs on the shelves of Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Waterstones, Paperchase, Clintons and independent card shops, and on window sills across the country.
UK Greetings are the UK’s market leading direct-to-retailer publisher, and manufacturer of greetings cards.
Based in West Yorkshire, we supply to the major supermarkets, high street specialists and independent retailers in the UK and internationally.
UKG have several established sub-brands, each priding itself on delivering something unique, giving UK Greetings a distinctive edge and sound reputation for diverse and eclectic product. More information on these can be found at
ukgreetings.co.uk
The Creative Challenge
The greetings card industry is a very competitive market. We are constantly looking for ways to stand out from the crowd, whether this be through an exciting card format, interesting use of finishes (emboss, foil, glitter, varnish, gems, googly eyes, printed card attachments, bespoke attachments, buttons etc), or simply stunning designs that stand out from the competition.
Target Audience
16-34 year olds.
Considerations
Think about the sending situation. Why would you be sending them a card? What is the occasion? Birthday card to a friend or to a family relation? Something to say good luck, get well? Congratulations? You’re getting married? Simply ‘I love you’ or ‘I miss you’?
Who is the recipient? At what stage in their lives are they? Single, married, with children, off to college/university, passing their driving test, losing someone close to them?
Remember who you are targeting. Who is going to be actually buying the card for the recipient? Although you need to design a card that targets the recipient, it’s the person who is buying the card we need to impress and convince.
Also please note: Women buy far more cards than men.
Is the card design-led or copy-led (could be a quote, just a ‘hello’ or a longer message)?
Mandatories
You must design at least 4 cards. These will include:
- Front page designs.
- Designs for the inside of the cards (this may or may not include an insert).
- A range name and logo to be printed on the back page.
- Remember to think about the envelope colour or design.
- Suggested card sizes – 159mm x 159mm, 121mm x 184mm, 137mm x 159mm, 110mm x 210mm but don’t let that restrict you.
- Add 3mm bleed to all artwork supplied.
Preparation
Take a look at what is out there. Visit Paperchase, Clintons, WH Smith and local card shops. A successful range often does something different to what is already out there.
Do some research into what types of cards are being sent to this target group and why.
Deliverables, Artwork and Additional Information
For guidance on how to submit your work, please adhere to the main deliverables information which can be found here.
Any additional supporting information referenced in the brief can be found in the supporting project pack.
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http://www.ycn.org/awards/ycn-student-awards/2012-2013/briefs
