The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf Awards Creative and Strategic Duties to Omelet

The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf(R) today announced that it has awarded its creative and strategic marketing duties to Omelet (www.omeletla.com) for the remainder of 2007. Omelet, a Los Angeles based full-service advertising, branding and entertainment agency, was founded late in 2005 by three former TBWA\Chiat\Day creative executives and a Hollywood intellectual property attorney. Omelet, which has been working with The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf(R) over the past year on a project-by-project basis, is charged with creating breakthrough communications for the rapidly growing retail chain through a variety of traditional and non-traditional channels. The account was previously with Dailey & Associates.

'Over the past several months, we have worked side by side with Omelet and they have consistently displayed big agency thinking with small agency attention to detail and excellent client service,' said Chas Hermann, sr. vice president of marketing & strategic alliances for The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf(R). 'From Omelet's successful 'Mascot Roommate' viral campaign (www.mascotroommate.com) to creating a completely fresh and new in-store marketing experience, we are thrilled to be working with such a unique new agency that truly understands and cares about our brand.'

Omelet, often called 'Agency 2.0,' is one of only a handful of shops that are helping to redefine the way brands communicate with consumers by offering a more nimble, creative and 'media neutral' approach to solving brands' core business challenges. One example of this can be seen in their first integrated program developed for The Coffee Bean(R) last summer called Mascot Roommate. This fictitious story driven campaign follows three college roommates, out for the summer, as they do everything in their power to get their fourth roommate (and buddy) fired from his summer job as the Ice Blended(R) mascot for The Coffee Bean(R). In this Jackass and Punk'd style series of short films, we watch as the roommates abduct, tackle, push down, beat up and publicly humiliate their friend and post the videos online for everyone to see. In addition, they have character driven MySpace pages that speak to the campaign and a rudimentary website where thousands of onlookers received constant updates and chatted about what should be done next to the helpless mascot.

Mascot Roommate was simply designed to help 'cool-up' The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf(R) brand and have some fun during the summer. The program was hailed as a 'site to watch' by USA Today's PopCandy the day after it launched and only four days after the first video was seeded on the Internet, it landed on CNN's Headline News with Erica Hall where it was hailed 'Viral of the Week.' And interestingly, both press outlets thought that Mascot Roommate was real and even inquired if 'Chris,' the mascot, was still employed.

'We are extremely excited to be working with such an amazing Southern California brand that has such rich history, incredible products and a great consumer experience,' said Ryan Fey, Partner, Omelet. 'In addition, working together with individuals as experienced, creative and insightful as Chas and his team will no doubt position us well in the battle for customer loyalty and bring The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf(R) experience to consumers in a truly different way.'

Omelet's 'independent by choice' mentality has helped them win a myriad of business since its inception and from some of the most well known brands in the world. In addition, Omelet has developed one of the most unique business models that the industry as a whole has seen in years. Coined the 'Omelet 50/50,' clients have the ability to work with Omelet in a variety of different ways depending on the business challenge at hand. For example, one part of the business is considered 'work for hire' and brands can engage Omelet in the traditional agency/client relationship fashion. But on the other side of the business, Omelet works directly with brands to develop original intellectual property (many times in the form of entertainment) that is co-owned between them.

In this case, Omelet helps brands make a return on their marketing investment -- something that historically has been only allocated as an expense.

From developing fully integrated campaigns for Microsoft and Universal Vivendi, to creating original entertainment for Anheuser Bush and Pandemic Studios, Omelet lets brands get the best of both worlds -- marketing and entertainment.


Logos, product and company names mentioned are the property of their respective owners.

Reader Comments:

Be the first to leave a comment for this article

Tweet