New Cappy advertising campaign reflects Coca-Cola’s growth ambitions for juice across Africa

The Coca-Cola Company has seen huge growth in its fruit juice blend brand, Cappy, since it launched in South Africa two years ago.  Stephan Czypionka, Marketing Director for Coca-Cola Southern & East Africa talks about the brand’s latest advertising campaign and how the Covid-19 pandemic helped propel it to the next level. 

Over the last three years, The Coca-Cola Company has been on a journey to become a Total Beverage Company, offering consumers more choice. In this time, its juice portfolio has seen phenomenal growth. In South Africa Cappy has grown into one of the top ready-to-drink juices after launching just two years ago.  The striking creative behind Cappy’s recently launched advertising campaign is part of the company’s efforts to grow its presence in the juice category across the continent.

The campaign comes at a time of great upheaval and uncertainty with the Covid-19 pandemic wreaking havoc across the world.  But if there’s one thing that this year has taught us, it’s that the little moments matter.  Perhaps working from home meant more time for a parent to linger with their family over breakfast instead of rushing out the door.  Maybe a Zoom call ended early and they were able to play dinosaurs with their toddler, instead of sitting in traffic.  Despite the challenges of the past year, many of us have found beauty in such micro-moments of connection with our loved ones.

It is these types of special moments that Cappy’s latest ‘Nurture the moment’ advertising campaign aims to capture.  After conducting in-depth consumer research last year, the marketing team found that consumers were not only looking to understand more about the functional aspects of juice products, but also sought emotional fulfilment from nurturing their families.  Our research also showed that despite juice usually being depicted as a breakfast drink, it is a versatile beverage and is consumed at various times throughout the day and on-the-go.

Working together with boutique agency, Cullinan & Cullinan, a series of heart-warming vignettes was developed depicting slices of everyday family life.  These help not only to communicate the wide Cappy range of products and the emotional role that juice can play in a family setting, but also demonstrate the brand’s versatility by showcasing the different moments throughout the day when juice is a preferred consumption choice.

The Coca-Cola Company is focused on democratising the juice category.  By this, we mean innovating to ensure different packaging and price points make the brand accessible to even more consumers.  For that purpose, why we launched Cappy Burst, an additional fruit flavoured drink option that is affordable and refreshing, perfect for at home and on-the-go.

There is also a strong innovation pipeline, with more new juice offerings due to hit the market soon.  It was therefore imperative that the campaign was able to speak to consumers across the spectrum and be flexible enough to convey the extent of our different juice offerings, with potential for expansion to different markets.

While the campaign would have hit the mark had it been released in 2019, the COVID-19 pandemic has increased the relevance of the juice category as consumers look for social and emotional connections after months of staying at home.

The creative team created more than 200 pieces of content for the Cappy campaign.  Building on our experience of successful digital campaigns, such as the #CokeBottleDanceChallenge which amplified the Coca-Cola 2019 summer campaign beyond expectations, social and digital remains a priority for a the Cappy campaign.  By inviting people to share their special moments of connection on social media, user-generated content is already helping to amplify the brand further and keep the conversation relevant. The campaign will also be rolled out across the traditional platforms of radio, television, in store and out of home.

The African marketing team has already established themselves as capable of developing original marketing campaigns for export across The Coca-Cola Company’s universe. There’s already interest from marketing teams outside of the continent looking to apply the campaign in their market, which is very exciting.  It is therefore with great excitement that the Cappy campaign launches first in South Africa and then across Africa in 2021. I have no doubt that “Nurture the moment” has global appeal in a time of great uncertainty.