In a world where brand perception can shift overnight, Coffee mate transformed an almost inopportune real-time moment into an opportunity for engagement within culture. Following the dramatic finale of White Lotus Season 3, which garnered 6.2 million views—surpassing the series record by 30% according to Variety—Coffee mate found itself at the center of consumer chatter.
As the pivotal scene in the finale unfolded involving a spiked piña colada and a dirty blender, fans took to social media to express their light-hearted concerns around Coffee mate's limited-time flavor, White Lotus Piña Colada (in partnership with the entertainment property). And despite our partnership, our teams were just as shocked as everyone else when we watched live! Instead of ignoring these concerns, Coffee mate embraced the moment, leaning into the new brand tone and personality. This strategic pivot allowed the brand to leverage the show's popularity and the cultural moment, elevating Coffee mate's presence on social media. The internal social media team capitalized on this opportunity by creating a viral reaction post that effectively separated the television storyline from consumer concerns with a wink and a nod.
Utilizing our internal social listening tools, we swiftly identified a rise in conversations surrounding Coffee mate and the White Lotus finale on the night of its premiere and the following morning. Recognizing the importance of meeting the moment and leaning into the conversation, the Coffee mate social media and brand teams collaborated effectively to assess fan sentiment and strategically decided to engage in a meaningful way. The challenge faced from there was around content creation. Just days prior, social media strategy, content creation, and community management efforts had been transitioned back in-house. Leaning into this moment required a scrappy and agile approach without the support of an external creative agency to meet the real-time content demand. The Coffee mate social media community manager quickly crafted a witty and playful defense, creating a static image of our limited-time Coffee mate White Lotus Piña Colada flavored creamer, accompanied by the text, “well this is awkward”. This simple but clever post not only addressed the concerns head-on but also resonated with our audience and fans of the show. Once the content was created, the team went live with the asset within hours of the finale's airing, showcasing our commitment to acting with speed and seizing the cultural moment.
Our reaction not only reassured consumers the flavor was safe in a humorous way but drove awareness of the flavor and partnership, garnering strong organic social media performance across platforms. The posts garnered 329.1K+ total organic reach, 178K+ total organic views, and 28K+ total organic engagements, and drove significant week over week growth for our organic social media channels with a +705% increase in reach and +857% increase in engagements. Additionally, media outlets were quick to reach out with one burning question: was Coffee mate in on the [plotline] secret? The team embraced the conversation, tapping Nestle USA Coffee & Beverage Division President Daniel Jhung for commentary, including a notable interview with the Wall Street Journal, and amplifying Coffee mate's owned organic social response, inserting the brand into and proactively fueling the mass national news cycle. In total, our organic social efforts garnered 1.14B+ media impressions across 178 media articles.
