AdMiration feature: Keurig's "You Deserve Great Coffee Without the Grind"

For this week’s AdMiration feature, we looked at consumer response to Keurig's "You Deserve Great Coffee Without the Grind" ad, which was released alongside their new brand platform of the same name that looks to provide a fresh take for the brand. 

Read on to get our 3-2-1 snapshot of the ad (3 facts, 2 learnings and 1 reflection) and learn how their ad was received based on our data.

The ad opens to a shot of a busy drive-thru and a man attempting to order a medium coffee through the intercom, which keeps crackling, cutting him off and dropping out, as Johann Strauss II’s “The Blue Danube” begins to play.  

With the man expressing a look of pure, defeated exasperation at the now obnoxious static coming through the speaker, a narrator comes in to say: “Or, you could simply press a button” and the scene shifts a Green Mountain K-Cup being placed inside of a Keurig machine and the same man pressing the Keurig button.  

The narrator continues, as several K-Cup coffee brands are shown, “Because each K-Cup pod contains freshly ground coffee,” then a close up of coffee beans being ground and brewed begins and the narrator continues, “precision-measured for a perfectly delicious cup,” ending with a close up with a single drip of coffee falling.    

The scene pans out to show the same man holding a cup of coffee brewed at home, wearing the classic post-pandemic look of a dress shirt, tie and jacket on top and boxers on the bottom. 

As he checks his phone and takes a long sip, the narrator finishes with, “So there’s no effort. No grind. No need to put on pants.” 

The ad closes with the Keurig logo and the words “Great coffee without the grind. Keurig.”

3 facts

• This is a strong ad from Keurig, landing in the top 15% of US ads for its ability to drive short term sales (Sales Impact: 86) and brand equity over the long term (Brand Impact: 84).

• The spot resonates strongly among all viewers, but even more so with older audiences, who were more likely to think that the ad communicates positive category attributes for the brand, with 77% agreeing that Keurig is “‘convenient” and 71% agreeing that it is “easy to use.”

• This ad does an excellent job at making people feel something (Overall Emotion: 66 vs. 57 norm) with multiple peaks of emotion through its strong and simple narrative, with the set up driving humor and the resolution driving love, causing it to sit in that sweet spot between love and laughter (Love: 33% vs. 27% norm, Laughter: 11% vs. 7% norm)!

2 learnings

• Capturing mini, relatable moments can be a great way to connect with your audience. Some of the best executions dramatize highly relatable scenarios people don't naturally think about, but as soon as it's brought to their attention are relatable and even amusing. In this case, Keurig taps into not one but two very real insights: (1) the frustration one can feel while in a long drive thru line and attempting to place an order and (2) the outfits most of us began wearing to “to work” after the pandemic, which helped the brand clearly land the effortless solution their product provides in a way that was highly engaging and entertaining, leaving them with a positive feeling of the brand (Brand Appeal: 4.2 vs. 3.9 norm). In fact, the biggest likes in this spot were around the relatability and humor! 

• Music can help set the tone of your ad. In this case, the slow introduction of Johann Strauss II’s “The Blue Danube” — a classical track occasionally used for comic relief in movies or shows like Horton Hears a Who, Squid Games and more — did an excellent job at complimenting the tone Keurig was trying to convey with their ad and really helped to drive home both the chaos and humor in the spot with its ironically elegant and epic sound — and viewers loved it (Musical Appeal: 4.1 vs. 3.8 norm)!  

1 reflection

Is there a way for you to present a common problem and position your brand as the solution — in an engaging way?

There can be common frustrations consumers have within your industry, in this case, annoying coffee shop drive-thrus with long waits. Keurig took note, relating to consumers by including this experience in their ad and entertaining them with such a relatable pain point (but not too deep!) that they stayed engaged as the ad progressed. 

But they didn’t just leave it there, they took it a step further and made sure their brand not only had a clear role, but was seen as the hero of the story — sharing how they can help eliminate that experience entirely while also providing high quality, freshly ground and delicious coffee built for the modern world. This made viewers feel more emotionally (and rationally) drawn towards them — ultimately leading to increased consideration for Keurig (Purchase Uplift: 29% vs. 22% norm)!

Keurig's new "You Deserve Great Coffee Without the Grind" campaign and brand platform was created by KDPOne, a bespoke Publicis Groupe unit.

The campaign, which aims to offer a fresh take from the brand, positions Keurig as an antidote to coffee culture that has become overly complicated, particularly in a post-pandemic world. 

On the campaign, Becky Opdyke, Senior Vice President of coffee marketing at Keurig Dr Pepper, shares: “We are not a brand that needs to take ourselves overly seriously. Great coffee doesn’t have to be serious. Great coffee is about that moment that you have with your cup, and what it often provides is that moment of joy or comfort even in your day. That doesn’t have to come with a stodgy, super high-level crafty appeal to it.”

This campaign and platform also comes at a time of firsts for the brand, including Keurig’s first line of coffee collections and acquisition of Peet’s. 

On this aspect, Opdyke adds: “We want to set the brand up to take that journey over the next year by making sure that we land our quality credentials strongly in the market and remind people of why Keurig was the revolution that it was and continues to be in single-serve coffee.”

The campaign will run across several leading streaming platforms, including Amazon Prime, Hulu, HBO Max, Paramount+, Peacock and Tubi.

Smartly and humorously relating to consumers, this spot from Keurig landed in the top 15% of US ads for its ability to drive short term sales and brand equity over the long term (Sales Impact: 86, Brand Impact: 84). 

And this was even higher among adults 45 and over (Sales Impact: 93, Brand Impact: 91)!

The relatable storyline, great soundtrack and expressive character made for a very distinctive ad that stands out, allowing it to drive great reach and be noticed and remembered (Distinctiveness: 4.1 vs. 3.7 norm, Claimed Attention 4.2 vs. 3.9 norm, Brand Distinctiveness 4.0 vs. 3.7 norm).

Plus, the dramatization of the problem and solution in the story and the beautiful visuals helped drive love as well as convey some key things about the Keurig brand. After watching, 65% of respondents agreed the ad shows that Keurig is “convenient,” while 62% agreed it’s “easy to use” and 57% that it has “quality taste.” 

But those numbers are higher for those ages 45+, with an incredible 77% saying that Keurig is “‘convenient” and 71% that it is “easy to use”!

Because of this, this spot makes people feel positive toward the Keurig brand (Brand Appeal: 4.2 vs. 3.9 norm) and feel like Keurig delivers what they need from a coffee brand (Brand Meets Needs: 4.4 vs. 4.1 norm).

The format and relatability of the story resonates very strongly with viewers, who find it enjoyable (Enjoyment: 4.2 vs. 3.9 norm), relevant to them (Relevance: 4.1 vs. 3.7 norm) and easy to understand (Understanding: 4.6 vs. 4.3 norm).

The spot does an excellent job at delivering a problem/solution driven storyline that makes people feel something (Overall Emotion: 66 vs. 57 norm) while watching the ad, sitting in that sweet spot between love and laughter (Love: 33% vs. 27% norm, Laughter: 11% vs. 7% norm)!

It all begins with a mix of love and like as the man is seen trying to order his coffee in the opening scene, when he’s met with garbled nonsense from the speaker. As he keeps trying and starts displaying increasingly annoyed facial expressions, laughter spikes. Then there’s a big spike of love as the narrator says “Or, you could simply press a button” and we see him press a button on his Keurig machine. Love continues as we see the coffee being brewed and the narrator says “Each K Cup pod contains freshly ground coffee, precision measured for a perfectly delicious cup.” Then there’s the final spike of laughter as the narrator says “So there’s no effort, no grind, no need to put on pants” and we see the man standing in his kitchen drinking coffee while wearing a suit and tie on top and boxers on the bottom. 

Diving deeper into what viewers specifically like about this ad, the most common themes among respondents were the emotional appeal (15%) in the ad (especially the humor!), as well as the people and characters (7%) and the overall relevance (5%) of the story. The music also contributed to people’s enjoyment (Musical Appeal: 4.1 vs. 3.8 norm) which helped set the tone of the ad. 

Here’s what some people had to say: 

• "I liked the ad showing how convenient it is to use Keurig as opposed to buying expensive coffee.” 

• "I like how it shows the difference between trying to order coffee and making it yourself."

• "It was great showing how effortlessly it is to make coffee at home."

• "I liked at the end of the ad it showed the guy at home relaxing comfortably half dressed drinking coffee at home and not rushing."

• “It made me want a cup of coffee as I was watching it."

• "I like the whole thing with the man trying to get coffee then going home and drinking coffee with no pants. It was funny."

All of this ultimately leads to increased consideration for Keurig (Purchase Uplift: 29% vs. 22% norm), exactly what a brand would hope to see!

What a great spot from Keurig that captures a true consumer insight! What did you think? Let us know by interacting with our coverage of the ad on LinkedIn.

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