Costa Appoints BBH to Global Advertising Account

Costa has appointed BBH as its global creative agency partner, following a competitive pitch process.

BBH will develop the global brand strategy and communications platform under Costa’s brand purpose of “Inspiring the world to love Great Coffee”. The agency’s first work for the brand will launch later this year, and will run across all 33 international markets in which it operates.

Since it was founded by brothers Bruno and Sergio Costa in 1971, Costa has been at the forefront of Britain’s growing love for better coffee. Costa is now the nation’s favourite coffee shop, with over 2,000 stores and 20,000 baristas serving hand-crafted, barista-made coffee to over a million customers every day. The brand’s ambition is to replicate this affinity on a global scale, across key geographies for both Retail stores and the 6000 global touch-points for the Costa Express proposition.

Following substantial global growth over the last 10 years, Costa launched a pitch process in March to appoint a lead global agency partner, working with the AAR. Previously the brand had worked with a number of agencies on an international and local basis. BBH’s appointment and the introduction of a global agency model aligns with a new internal brand operating model at Costa, designed to help build the brand globally and drive preference and sales in local markets.

The account will be run out of BBH London, supported in market by local offices and partners.

Ben Fennell, CEO of BBH London, said: “BBH is thrilled to be working with Costa after what was an excellent pitch process. The brief was tight, the process was fast, and the clients were delightful. I'm confident that we will do great things together.”

Caroline Harris, Global Brand Director at Costa, said: “We are delighted to confirm the appointment of BBH as our lead global creative agency. We’ve been really impressed with their strategic planning and creative strategy through the pitch. We had a fantastic chemistry with the team and they have a great understanding of target customers, as well as a genuine appreciation of the differences across our key geographies. We’re excited to start working with them on the next stage in our brand development.”