How Nespresso Is Supporting Worthy Causes Nominated By Employees
November 8, 2022
by Eric Berger
The company has helped provide shelter to homeless LGBTQ+ youth and aided underrepresented students with their college journey.
Campaign: Things We Hold
Companies: Nespresso
Agency Partners: Accompany Creative (creative) and Allison+Partners (earned media)
Duration: September 14 – ongoing
Each morning, people around the world hold mugs of coffee. But what if those cups did more than just serve as vessels for the caffeinated beverage? What if they helped support a worthy cause?
That’s the idea Nespresso had with the latest iteration of its Things We Hold campaign, an initiative to support causes nominated by its employees.
Strategy
The idea behind the campaign was to bring “our brand purpose to life [by] really leveraging and empowering our employees to help direct where that impact goes,” said Justin DeGeorge, Nespresso’s VP of marketing.
Employee resource groups identify nonprofits that align with the company and try to find “ways to really help create lasting impact together with that partner in our local communities,” DeGeorge explained.
The company launched the campaign in the spring with a cause nominated by its Nespresso Pride employee resource group. The company found an artist to create limited edition mugs and saucers and then donated $500,000 in proceeds to the Ali Forney Center, which provides shelter to homeless LGBTQ+ youth.
For the most recent campaign, the Black@Nespresso employee resource group nominated Thrive Scholars, an organization that helps high-achieving, low-income and underrepresented students get into and graduate from top colleges.
“We genuinely believe that our brand and coffee really can be a force for good, and we're committed to not just driving positive business results and outcomes, but really positively impacting all the stakeholders that we engage with,” DeGeorge said.
Tactics
Nespresso committed $500,000 to sponsor the six-year journey of 20 Thrive Scholars from pre-college preparation through graduation and early career entry.
The company worked with Kenesha Sneed, a Black female multidisciplinary artist whose brand is Tactile Matter. She designed coffee mugs and saucers, which the company sold for $24 and then donated the proceeds to Thrive Scholars.
The company also produced a video about the campaign featuring Thrive Scholars beneficiaries and Black@Nespresso members.
The company promoted the campaign via email to its customers and on Instagram with “simple, highly-compelling visuals,” DeGeorge said.
Results
For the first wave of the campaign in the spring, the company saw a:
116% increase in sales performance above projection;
70% increase in traffic during a program launch event at its flagship store in New York’s SoHo neighborhood
105% increase in organic social engagement.
During the latest wave of the campaign, Thrive's Instagram posts featuring the partnership received nearly 4,000 views, according to Thrive Scholars. A Thrive LinkedIn post also generated a 524% increase in unique visitors to the organization’s page on the platform and 393% increase in visitors on mobile, according to Thrive Scholars.
Since launching Things We Hold, the company has sold 20,000 mugs, according to Nespresso.