Cafe Najjar: Someone has a budget!!
Cafe Najjar: Someone has a budget!!
By Admin I : It looks like finally another coffee brand decided to ditch the conventional “heritage+well shot coffee beans= buy our coffee” advertising approach and go for something interactive and very present in today’s society. After a series of hit campaigns by Cafe Super Brazil with a fortunetelling theme, Caffe Najjar decided to stand up to the challenge with a multivisual approach and a social media theme (even though the agency/brand was too lazy to post the videos online in an official appropriate way, a huge loophole in such approach, that could’ve easily gone viral).
3 TVCs were released, and being honest, the copywriting job is what made those TVCs the talk of the town (at least two of them) and a delight to watch, targeting two very different audiences at once: young adults and middle aged women/housewives.
Online chatting visuals have been used quite a lot lately, in many different campaigns whether locally (Lapiara) or internationally, but the use of such art direction came very useful to the proposed concept “Wen fi Lebeneh, fi Najjar” which is based on how Lebanese stay true to their rituals, especially the coffee “Subhiyyeh” no matter where they are. Another visual depicts a grandmother chatting with her granddaughter, following the same concept and a very funny dialogue.
The third visual featuring a young couple texting to set a meeting at Cafe Najjar broke the successful rhythm of the campaign with a failing treatment and art direction (chat symbols differ between the texting couple and the final headline) along with the fact that the whole approach is deja vue, and didn’t add to the previous two; If I knew Najjar had a budget overflow, I would’ve personally suggested a branding job, since the packages and the coffee shop brandings are screaming for a design lifting since ages!
Advertising in such a culturally rich diverse country can reach very high standards if the concept reflected a true contextual approach with a fine line between pop and vulgar (Smeds ad anyone?) since in the end, dealing with such a brand can be a quite good opportunity for storytelling as a medium, to express Lebanese rituals that we still enjoy and cherish.
There were actually 4 ads.
2 for the grandma/granddaughter ad,
1 for the parents/sons iPad ad,
and 1 text messaging ad.
In my opinion, the ads were good, except for the texting (as you already stated)
I would rank them the same way i listed them
Thanks Hisham, 4 versions indeed.. Now I’m sure my title works!! a budget overflow!
))
LOL yeah, but at least they’re not Smeds
The ads are great! Concerning the budget you are talking about I really don’ think it is an issue since the films don’t seem to cost a lot… It’s not as if there were a whole range or special effects or so: like you said, the job here is around the copywriting and not about the production.
Very true, but broadcasting 4 tvcs can be quite expensive.. production is one thing but showering TVs with the commercial is another.. That’s what I meant with the budget issue.. We were used to stock footage edited and broadcasted and suddenly we see a 4 visuals campaign.. that’s it
It doesn’t mean they are necessarily buying more media/TV space, it’s just that they are splitting it differently. Instead of annoying people with the same TV spot repetitively, they are using 4 different spots…
We kinda know that Karine
) we’re just making fun of their decision to spend some money after ages of ridiculous advertising, we’re never super serious in our titles..
well if they have money and know how to spend it, let them do that
Terribly unfunny. Why someone would rate this “good” and “great” is beyond me.
I wouldn’t be surprised if they turned out to be the agency. Next…
you’re funny!
honestly the casting was awful and terrible in most of the cafe najjar ads. moreover the concept isnt that powerful and catching. i see them in the same rank as freeze and XXL. Very poor