As most of the agency will tell you, one of the secret ingredients to a successful event is ensuring an ample supply of coffee to keep folk running.
So when April 6th rolled round, we were glad the events in question were London Coffee Festival and UK Coffee Week.
Having landed over 100 pieces of pre-event coverage through a hard-working press office and some clever news gen, we knew the momentum was with us and it was going to be a storming nine-day stint. Starting at London’s Truman Brewery.
Spanning three floors, with over 200 exhibitors and some of the finest coffee beans and machines available, the London Coffee Festival is one of the largest in the world and growing.
This year saw 30,000 people file through the doors – a mixture of trade, coffee aficionados, foodies, music lovers, latte artists and baristas.
Naturally, an event of this scale gave us a great opportunity to spread the coffee message with the media and across the four days of the festival we had them along in droves.
We landed a Facebook Live with UK Latte Art Champion Dhan Tamanag who wowed the team at Olive; we took Monocle Radio on a coffee and food pairing tour with Grind; we gave The Sunday Times Food time with Caravan Coffee Roasters to learn all they could from their Head of Education; we invited cocktail experts Mr Black to mix up a special Coffee Negroni for the video team from Associated Press that was syndicated around the world.
And these were just the start.
Over the course of the four-day festival we welcomed over 100 media through the door from as far as China, Japan, France, Germany and Canada.
We had video journalists, social media managers, editors, writers, bloggers and a healthy group of Instagram influencers all come done and be blown away by the sheer scale of the UK coffee industry. Needless to say, there was a lot of wide-eyed and very happy media wandering around Brick Lane that weekend.
But the fun didn’t stop there as London Coffee Festival marks the beginning of UK Coffee Week. Running from 10-16 April, this celebration of the thriving coffee scene is a chance for the industry to give back to coffee growing communities through charity partners, including the main charity for the week, Project Waterfall.
The caffeine-fuelled team kept up the momentum from the festival and hit the ground running on Monday morning announcing the arrival of the week to national and regional media.
Wednesday of the week saw the finals of the Coffee Music Project, a nationwide talent competition that raises money for Project Waterfall. A packed room of fans, friends, coffee lovers, media and influencers watched as Ruby Confue was crowned 2017 champion, bagging herself studio time and a cheque for £1,000.
The final flourish of the week took the team to Manchester for a Latte Art Throwdown. A head-to-head latte art battle that pitted some of the north’s finest baristas against one another in a fast-paced competition to be crowned a throwdown champion. We ensured Manchester Evening News got an early look video from the night before the festivities began.
By the time April 16 rolled around, the team had spent 10 days immersed in coffee (not literally). The final amount raised is still being counted up, but we’re hoping we helped deliver the most successful UK Coffee Week to date, sending more money to the communities that produce our morning cup.
