Brand Positioning Agency

Content Creation Agency

Digital PR Agency

Influencer Marketing Agency

Social Media Marketing Agency

Heartfelt Brews – Philips’ Influencers Share Love Through Coffee

objectives

When Smoking Gun launched Philips’ influencer and PR focused Valentine’s campaign, the excitement brewed. With a shared vision to revolutionise the coffee experience, Smoking Gun embarked on crafting engaging social-first content that would transform perceptions and ignite interest in Philips’ ‘barista-quality coffee for everyone’ proposition.

Key objectives included:

Driving brand awareness and purchase consideration during the key buying/gifting period.
Engaging and shareable social media content creation for Philips’ channels.
Communicating Philips’ coffee credentials, expertise, and product USPs.
Building credibility and advocacy around Philips coffee credentials among key influencers.
Educating consumers on the ease of use, convenience, and value for money of Philips coffee machines.
Ultimately, driving sales during the key buying period.

Lizzie O’Connell, Consumer Marketing Manager for Philips commented:

“We’re selling machines that make coffee, which is all about enjoyment.

Let’s face it, we’re not saving lives, we’re making coffee. So our brief to Smoking Gun was to create some Valentine’s content that brought this enjoyment and playfulness to the forefront while also positioning our machine as a perfect gift for a loved one.

And they did just that: partnering us with the perfect talent to deliver on our brief with their big fun personalities and spending time crafting hilarious content that brought a smile not only to us but also to our retail partners, consumers, and the world of Instagram.

This unsurprisingly drove incredible results in reach and engagement for us.”
Qualitative findings revealed that customers preference is clearly for creative product demos.

Comments on the social campaign were extremely positive:
- Really fun and very youthful!
- Shows the machine in action,
  which is a positive.
- Not quite what people expect
  from Philips as a brand
  (which is older, more
  conservative).

strategy

If one Instagram post can make headlines, the right influencer can change everything.

The campaign focused on working with a handful of aspirational celebrity influencers to create talkability across social media in the run-up to Valentine’s Day. Our strategy leveraged the ‘love languages’ trend—a popular concept in online news and social media.

Love languages refer to the ways individuals prefer to express and receive love, suggesting that relationships thrive when partners understand and focus on each other’s preferred love language.

By tapping into this trend, the campaign highlighted how making a special coffee for your loved one is a great way to express your love. Helping to position Philips as the experts in coffee machines for real people, this approach aimed to increase brand and product awareness, visibility, and salience, effectively capturing and converting interest.

We strategically partnered with five high-profile personalities: The dynamic trio of Sam Thompson, Zara McDermott, and Pete Wicks, as well as Love Island favourites Olivia and Alex Bowen.

execution

Under the strategic management of Smoking Gun’s Digital Team, the campaign, from concept creation to content editing and amplification, was executed flawlessly. We executed the strategy, focusing on showcasing the Philips coffee machine as the hero product, highlighting its ease of use and premium quality.

We produced fun and entertaining social-first videos with our chosen popular celebrity couples, presenting the coffee machines in a light-hearted and relatable manner. These videos emphasised the machine’s ease of use, convenience, and value for money, debunking myths about cost and complexity while capturing viewers’ interest with the influencers’ natural personalities.

As part of our integrated approach, we secured an exclusive feature with The Daily Mail. Due to the highly engaging content, The Daily Mail published several follow-up articles, generating significant reach and engagement with the content.

As a result, we not only successfully elevated Philips’ brand visibility but also drove sales during the crucial Valentine’s Day period.

The videos combined humour and engaging elements to highlight the ease of use and high quality of the coffee produced by the machines. This approach ensured the content felt authentic and relatable, encouraging viewers to share and engage with the posts

Watch Coffee Love Language with Olivia & Alex Bowen

key outcomes

The Valentine’s Day content campaign was a successs, securing top-tier editorial coverage and driving significant engagement across social media.

Key outcomes included:

Video Views and Engagement – The videos generated 1,395,697 views and 66,428 engagements, with viewers expressing admiration for the campaign’s creativity and humour. Many comments noted the desire to purchase a Philips coffee machine after watching the content.

Positive Feedback – The content was well-received, with numerous positive comments about the celebrities involved and the overall quality of the ads. Fans appreciated the humour and relatability of the videos.

Brandter with McVities – Philips engaged in a playful social media exchange with the famous biscuit brand McVities, enhancing the campaign’s visibility and engagement.

Market Impact – Brand tracking indicated a significant market share growth, from 9.6% in 2023 to 16% in early 2024, overtaking Siemens to become the number two brand in the market.

Media Coverage – The campaign earned substantial media coverage, with 23 pieces of earned news and owned social posts reaching a total audience of 2,287,846. Top-tier media publications featured 100% of the coverage, with all containing key campaign messages.

Influencer Impact – The influencer content scored highly in Espresso Qual research for being fun, engaging, and showcasing the coffee machine effectively. The Daily Mail Online and other major outlets published multiple pieces about the campaign, further extending its reach.

The campaign demonstrated the power of using relatable, engaging content to shift brand perception and drive consumer action, setting a new standard for how Philips communicates its coffee machine offerings.

results

1,110,079

organic reach of social posts

15,622

total clicks from social

1,395,697

total video views on social media

66,428

video engagements

42,888

engagements on celebrity posts

100% of coverage

featured in top-tier media, all containing key messages

Earned Media Reach

1,177,767