Aside of a well-planned marketing strategy which includes segmentation, audience awareness and promotional tactics, brand ambassadors have also become a key tool when looking to increase brand awareness. 

It’s easy to point towards the modern rise of social media influencers, who are successful in engaging their audiences and promoting a product. Could a brand go one step further than social media influencer? Coffee machine maker De’Longhi’s answer: Brad Pitt. 

The Italian brand have announced that world-famous actor, Brad Pitt, will be their brand ambassador with aim to double the premium coffee machine market in the UK. 

The advertisement featuring Brad Pitt, launched on TV screen at the beginning of September. It showcases the actor riding his motorbike in Los Angeles to pick up a bag of  roasted coffee beans from a store, before riding home in cinematic fashion. He’s then seen brewing his coffee and enjoying his efforts. 

One of the main reasons for targeting the coffee market in the UK, is due to the market not being as “mature” as others in Europe, according to Marketing Director, Alex Pickering. 

“We see the UK as a really high potential market for bean-to-cup coffee machines as the awareness levels have been very low in the UK, as has household penetration, but the desire for great tasting coffee is greater than ever before, so we felt that now is the right time to accelerate awareness and household penetration.”

Featuring a household name in Brad Pitt will surely boost De’Longhi’s efforts in raising awareness. 

Coffee shops, like many café’s and restaurants, were forced to shut down for much of last year; and Alex Pickering believes the increase in hybrid working will see consumers demanding quality coffee whilst working from home. 

“We don’t see the coffee machine market slowing down at all. The whole point of us investing in media and a strong brand ambassador like Brad right now is to effectively speed up growth,”

“I would like the beans-to-cup coffee machine market to double in size from £33m. I would love us to have boosted the beans-to-cup market because I’m confident in our potential in penetrating UK households”.

Consumers can expect to see the campaign on social media, video-on-demand services, digital media and PR events, stores and more – receiving a £4m budget in the UK.