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Creative in association withGear Seven
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Kenneth the Kenco Machine Surprises Soho Square

28/08/2012
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Arc London’s chatty coffee machine goes viral

 

To mark the launch of Kenco Millicano in vending machine form, Arc London created Kenneth, an interactive talking vending machine which appeared for one day only on the 6th July 2012.
 
Kenco Millicano is Kenco's first wholebean instant coffee, the closest thing to 'proper' coffee in an instant, with the taste of roast and ground coffee. It had already seen huge success in the grocery market, with almost £17m of retail sales, but the brand needed something special to mark its move into the Away From Home arena.
 

Arc London, the brand activation agency, worked with Kraft Foods to bring to life the brand motto that 'great coffee speaks for itself'. With a comedian hidden inside, Kenneth the vending machine attracted unsuspecting passers-by in Soho Square, London. The machine offered up free cups of Kenco Millicano coffee, along with some upbeat conversation, bringing a smile to people's faces and encouraging them to connect with other coffee lovers.
 
575 cups of Kenco coffee were distributed during the activity, with 3000 postcards carrying the message 'sorry you missed Kenneth' handed out as well as 530 touting the 'I had the Kenneth experience' postcards.
 
A @KencoCup Twitter feed was set up to encourage consumers to share their experience through social media channels, with 9 tweets sent out by Kenneth during the day, prompting 8 retweets and 17 new followers.
 
Positive Twitter responses included: “Loved the free coffee in Soho Square this morning from @KencoCup. I needed some perking up! #kencotalks” from @vikiimrie; “Lovely experience with a coffee machine named Kenneth. He gave me a cagoule wearing tip & a nice coffee! #KencoTalks” from @SimonSilva and “Thanks for cheering up this horrible morning @KencoCup!!! Free coffee this morning! <3 #kencotalks” from @Samanthapetals.
 
Video footage of the activity was uploaded to Kenco's Facebook page, prompting requests for Kenneth to visit other cities around the country. The Kenco Millicano Facebook page received 15,073 hits on July 6th, with 124 likes, comments and shares. The teaser on 4th July matched this level of engagement with 16,482 hits prompting 152 likes, comments and shares, with another 68 for the second teaser on July 5th.
 
With the normal Kenco Facebook virality level at 0.22%, and previous Kenco Facebook campaign 'The Big Refill' knocking up overall virality to a level of 0.49%, the 0.82% virality for Kenneth on 6th July was a marked step up.
 
Kenneth was a hit, increasing Kenco Millicano's social presence and raising awareness of the new product and its availability in vending machines. 
 
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