Nescafé Gold goes regional

I CAUGHT the newly launched 30-second commercial of Nescafé Gold during the weekend. Everything about it is beautifully high-end — from the living room set to the attire of the endorsers, and, needless to say, the endorsers themselves.

Unlike most of the coffee commercials running today, the identity of the endorsers escaped me. I mistakenly thought that the two were not celebrity endorsers. But I judged them as the perfect choice for a product that is obviously targeted to the young, sophisticated, accomplished market. Class, beauty, and refinement.

I interviewed Nescafé’s Philippine AVP consumer marketing manager Odessa Eustaquio and Publicis Manila’s associate business unit director Monica Cabanos to get some information on the project. It turns out that this is the first time Nescafé has gone into a regional production, mainly between Thailand and the Philippines, the lead market being Thailand.

The entire commercial was shot in Thailand. The female endorser, it turns out, is Kim Jones, a Filipino-British model who grew up in Australia. The background data furnished me is awesome: Kim was named as one of the top fashion and travel influencers in Southeast Asia, embracing a series of partnerships that include creative consultancy, art directing, styling, modeling, and ambassadorship roles. She counts MAC Cosmetics, Sephora, Tommy Hillfiger, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, and more as her clients, her style having also been featured in high fashion magazines such as Philippine Tatler, L’Officiel Manila, L’Officiel Singapore, and The Coveteur. Kim is one of the TV hosts of ETC’s lifestyle show ETCetera. I was told, too, that she is the wife of actor Jericho Rosales.

The commercial’s male endorser, Saharat Sangkhapreecha (Kong), is a major heartthrob in Thailand who has been known as the pretty faced guitarist of boy band NUVO since the early 1990s. He is also a renowned actor, voice-over artist, and composer.

One can tell that the two are seasoned actors, their facial expressions, movements, and interactions in perfect accord with Director Vatatchal Saeng-Xuto’s overall wishes and tonality of the whole commercial. The two are beautiful together, fully projecting that a nice relationship is apparently brewing.

The packaging of the three new Nescafé Gold 3-in-1’s rises above the clutter of other 3-in-1’s, giving the Nescafé Gold White Espresso, Nescafé Gold Cappuccino, and Nescafé Latte Macchiato a superior look and feel. It is, after all, “a more premium instant coffee already mixed.”

I noticed that the red mug that has been identified with in all Nescafé commercials has also been changed to a transparent crystal cup showing what I personally perceive as the coffee’s fluffy milk froth. This is dramatized not only in its packaging, but specially in the commercial’s final few frames. The two are shown slowly sipping their coffee and a bit of humor is injected as the froth of milk is daintily left on the tip of the girl’s pretty nose.

Of course the raw coffee beans and roasted coffee shots as they are mixed and transformed into the delicious coffee are great transformation shots that leave the viewer ready to go for the new premium product.

Congratulations to Nestlé Thailand and Nestlé Philippines and their respective advertising agencies. Regional productions with the projects’ complexities render the end-product worth their weight in gold. That’s Nescafé Gold indeed!

CREDITS. Philippine team: Clients: Dennis Austriaco, business executive officer, Nescafé; Odessa Eustaquio, AVP consumer marketing manager, Nescafé. Agency: Publicis Manila: Alistair Wood, chief creative officer; Alvin Tecson, executive creative director; April Lim-Landicho, division head; Monica Cabanos, associate business unit director; Cams Viriña, account manager.

Thailand team: Clients: Vladislav Andreev, business director, coffee and creamer; Aplwat Irlyaplchat, Nescafé premium manager; Sunong Chucherd, Nescafé premium business senior brand manager. Creative agency: Creative team: Phongphat Chutrakul, deputy executive creative director; Ekkavut Pinrode, associate creative director; Punthep Sakolwitayanon, senior copywriter. Account management: Saithip Suravinon, senior client service director. Producer: Pimchaya Jirajintanapas, film producer. Production house, Farang Service; director, Vatatchai Saeng-Xuto; assistant director, Thipakorn Theva-aksorn; producer, Supreecha Khongkhakul; DOP, Thanitsapong Sasinmanop; editor, Nadya Metasiri.