Background

KANU by Dong Suh Foods Corp. is S.Korea’s number one instant coffee brand, accounting for more than 80% M/S. Like other market leading brands, KANU was struggling for market expansion. Moreover, Korean consumers were quickly getting used to the luxurious coffee drinking experience offered by offline cafe brands. Therefore, KANU needed to break the instant coffee image and create a new future growth engine by providing brand experiences that only KANU can provide. We needed a solution that can connect KANU deeper in consumer’s lives to promote additional drinking experiences and acquire consumer data that help KANU to understand our consumers deeper.

Describe the creative idea (30% of vote)

We produced limited 680K packages with special imprinted codes. When consumers simply scan the code on the package through the KANU Paddle app after purchasing them, they receive ‘paddle points’ to exchange for KANU goods. We launched limited special camping goods through premium camping brands collaborations such as Coleman & Barebones. We also launched various cultural goods such as KANU music playlist in collaboration with top music streaming platform and KANU curated movie suggestions with OTT platform collaboration, then sold music & OTT subscription coupons as well. The only thing that we didn’t sell on our platform was the actual KANU products.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

We decided that creating another sales channel is not the solution. Instead, we focused on activating TPO that boosts brand experience, delivering our product benefit that a 3.2inch small KANU stick can provide best coffee experiences anywhere. Thus, we strategically leveraged camping, which has become a popular trend in the recent pandemic, as a moment to enrich brand experience. Moreover, we selected additional moments such as movies, music & reading to get closer in consumer’s daily lives. Then we created a new commerce platform, KANU Paddle, where consumers can actually amplify brand experience.

Describe the execution (20% of vote)

With the launch of the KANU Paddle app, we focused on viral marketing to generate organic interest from consumers with campaign affinity, and announced KANU Paddle app around top camping communities. Also to maintain continuous participation and attention to our campaign, we released new KANU experience goods weekly for 6 weeks and opened up a limited quantity every day. Additionally, to acquire more consumer data, we held promotions such as special gift emoticons and encouraged consumers to voluntarily participate on surveys and provide various data. KANU successfully acquired numerous consumer data, and is planning for a data-driven Season2 campaign.

List the results (30% of vote)

Special KANU packages were sold out in 3 months, and KANU achieved over 180K app downloads & 60K members’ registration. Few popular limited collaboration goods were sold out in just 3 seconds and the server went down temporarily twice due to massive traffic. Above all, in a situation where offline cafe visits were rising again due to relaxed social distancing, KANU's sales increased by 3.7% YoY in the same period. Customers who purchased KANU for the first time to participate in the KANU paddle campaign accounted for 20% of the registered members, proving that selling new drinking experiences was effective.