It’s tough to make a strategy or campaign change when what you’ve been doing has worked for many years. Cameron’s Specialty Coffee chose to lean into the risk of change, and in less than a year was rewarded with accelerating sales.

The brand invested for almost a decade in remarkably consistent, classic challenger-brand marketing. Sales roughly tripled over that time, thanks to all the pieces working as they should: a remarkable product, disciplined growth in physical availability – including a full embrace of the ecommerce growth tailwind – and expanding mental availability through consistent communications and growing investment.

A taste positioning articulated as “Always Smooth, Never Bitter,” we freshened executions periodically over 7+ years, while keeping the core storytelling formula and messaging the same. Then in 2024, the Cameron’s team noticed a sales growth slowdown. We stepped back, kicked off a rapid yet robust dive into consumer and cultural trends, fielded proprietary research, and applied those learnings to make a change.

We learned that taste as a positioning, and even the “Always Smooth, Never Bitter” articulation of it, still resonated. But younger generations were especially fond of their coffee shop routines, and the milkshake-like coffees concocted there. The humor, and our foil, had run its course.

But those same generations were super curious about what made our coffee taste smooth. Was it just marketing jargon, or was there something authentically unique to Cameron’s? They sparked to the roasting process itself, and the extra care taken to never burn a bean. And because any process reason-to-believe can sound pretty boring, we found a fun way to bring it to life. We were especially inspired by Progressive Insurance storytelling, and other brands that have created lovable characters to deliver rational information in an entertaining way.

The revamped campaign had an unusually immediate impact on sales, and we’ll continue to refresh it.

Timeless lessons here: stick to what’s working until it’s not, be accountable as marketers for incremental growth, and proactively reassess and freshen your positioning and storytelling platform in the current cultural context.