70s British brand Mellow Bird's in comeback

by Fiona Ramsay, marketingmagazine.co.uk 07-Apr-09, 08:40

LONDON - Mellow Bird's, the classic British brand that brought instant coffee to a tea-drinking nation in the 70s, is being relaunched with a nationwide marketing drive targeting students.

Kraft UK, which also owns the Kenco, Maxwell House, Carte Noire and Tassimo coffee brands, will back this month's relaunch with an integrated campaign. The creative plays on 'mild' euphemisms such as: 'Do you want to come up and feed my goldfish?', with the strapline 'Born to be mild'.

The campaign is being handled by Work Club, which picked up the business without a pitch earlier this year.

The brand has not been actively marketed since the 80s and early 90s, when ads featured the straplines 'For Mellow moments', 'Mellow roasted for more flavour' and 'Mellow Bird's will make you smile'.

TV ads will air on Channel 4 on university campuses via the student-targeted Freewire TV service before potentially being rolled out nationwide.

Online display ads will drive consumers to a Mellow Bird's-branded eBay store, which will sell not only the coffee, but also blue-and-yellow themed bedding, music and branded mugs, all priced £1.89 - the cost of the jar of coffee - to attract bargain-hungry consumers.

Kraft will also place inter-active posters in university campus bar toilets and run a week of street sampling and experiential activity promoting the brand.

Comments

Caroline Garbis - 07/04/2009

I was singing the strap line to myself, "mellow birds will make you smile" as soon as I saw the story title! I love the nostalgic brands. Will this be an environmentally friendly recycling job by using the same ad? If I recall, the coffee was dotted with two eyes and a smile. Jingles from the 70's are certainly memorable. In my mature years, I do however prefer organic or fresh ground coffee like Nespresso. It will be good to see if the brand appeals to my daughter who is in the Student target market.