• by Karlene Lukovitz , June 16, 2017

Nescafé is promoting its Sweet & Creamy instant coffee sachet products by adding some clever twists to the pop-up café concept.

The “perfect coffee at home” brand has opened a pop-up coffee taproom on Toronto’s trendy Queen Street. But rather than selling coffee, the space offers hot water taps to make your own with Sweet & Creamy sachets.

The key to gaining admittance is scanning a Sweet & Creamy sachet on an iPad to receive a secret code to unlock the doors.

In addition to coffee, the large taproom offers comfortable places to sit, fast WiFi, and ample electrical outlets. And, in a sly dig at traditional coffee shop rituals, visitors can choose from 50 different cups that have misspelled versions of common names already “written” on them. (Sets of five cups, along with sachets, are also being sold at Nescafé’s online store.) 

In fact, as the voiceover in the wry first promotional video (below) points out, aside from long lines, the only coffee-shop elements missing are “baristas named Federico, complicated menus, expensive drinks, and man buns…unless you have one — in which case, cool.”

The taproom and its supporting campaign are the first work for Sweet & Creamy from the WorkInProgress/WIP agency.  

The campaign includes several videos being used in a paid digital media buy. WIP also created a Snachat Geo-Filter accessible only in the taproom and worked with Toronto-based influencers to create content to support the launch.

Taproom visitors are also being encouraged to share about their experience on social using #nescafeca and #taproom. 

While the Toronto coffee taproom is set to close after June 28, the taproom area of Nescafé’s shop site is encouraging visitors to register their names and emails and weigh in on which city should be the location for the brand’s next taproom.