Nescafe Experiences

An ad for a contest for Nescafe was on TV, the only phrase that caught my ear was Nescafe Experiences, no URL appeared to be mentioned. Searching for the phrase for me nothing and the Nescafe main site was only 4th on the list. I eventually found my way onto Nescafe UK, which is a meh site, OK, it does the job, it’s got a lot of stuff on it, fitting right into the ‘information’ led product site. Nothing wrong with it, just does not grab the heart. They’ve tried to add some interactive stuff but it’s there more for the ‘we’ve got flash interactive’ then actually doing things, they are pretty, but slow down the access to the information which is what people go there for.

But the biggest barrier on hitting the home page was where was the Nescafe Experiences. That’s the words I kept hearing in the ad, so where was the promotion. There’s a TV ad, why can’t I find more about it?

It turns out that it’s called ‘Celebrate our Birthday‘ in the menu or ‘Birthday Honours’ in the rotating promo ad on the site that appears 50% of the time. No mention of Nescafe Experiences on the home page, although they are calling it a Nescafe Birthday Experience. It turns out to be a buy a pack and enter your code for a chance to win prizes like a night in a hotel or a cookery course. Not big prizes, but pretty nice all the same.

Two lessons here:

• If you’re going to run a TV ad with one word being stressed enough for people to remember it, then make sure the search works for it. Not even Nescafe Birthday Honours finds it.
• Make sure it’s prominent enough on the brand site so people can find the tools needed for the promotion, use the same words.

Know how your audience find things. From TV or even from a pack people are most likely to use search to find your stuff. make sure it works!