Costa Coffee Campaign is Full of Beans

Question: How do you top a spot in which a tribe of monkeys (it is 'tribe', we looked it up) attempt to make a great cup of coffee? Answer: By planting a group of people up to their necks in coffee beans and asking them to sing a Kiss song, of course. Fool.

So, that's exactly what Sam Walker and Joe de Souza at Karmarama and Rogue director Sam Brown did. And here the two Sams explain where the idea came from, how important the track was to the film and why working with monkeys isn't all it's cracked up to be.

Where did the idea for this spot come from?

Walker: We've actually had the idea for a while and have been waiting for the right time to use it. It's about showing the barista's passion for their coffee and putting their heart and soul into what they do. The lyrics of the song do a lot of the heavy lifting, which is one reason why it was important to find the right track, and the buried heads act as a giant metaphor for their commitment to what they do. And also we thought it would be funny.

As a client, what is Costa like to work for?

Walker: Costa have been brilliant. It's our second TV ad with them and they are very brave and believe in creativity. Last time was the first-ever coffee shop ad to run on TV in the UK and we had an infinite room full of monkeys trying to make coffee. This time it's 85 baristas buried up to their necks in coffee beans. They've been great and we hope we've repaid their faith in us.

What did you think when you saw the script?

Brown: I loved it. I’d worked with Sam and Joe a couple of times before, and they always come up with nice ideas. We did a Costa spot before with monkeys making coffee, and because this one occupies the same sort of territory I got the tone of it all straight away.

What attracted you to the project?

Brown: People up to their necks in coffee singing I Was Made For Loving You is just a funny image, it made me giggle just thinking about it. I also like the way Sam and Joe approach things, it’s always a fun process with them and we understand each other very well.

What did Sam Brown bring to the project?

Walker: This is the third time we've worked with Sam. He's very collaborative and we tend to have a similar vision. We knew we wanted the spot to be shot in camera so you get a real sense of the people neck deep in coffee beans - and Sam is brilliant at that. He is also very imaginative with art direction and set design.

It would have been easy to do this all using CGI but we felt the film would lose much of its charm and humanity. The curtain idea was a way of giving it scale and a dream like quality without resorting to CGI. Sam also makes stuff look great. We knew that even though the idea was kind of odd we still wanted it to look cinematic and have an air of quality to it.

What were you looking for when casting the spot?

Brown: I was looking for someone with no self-consciousness whatsoever, and who could abandon themselves to the song for two days straight with unwavering gusto. I also didn’t want any posturing or showiness or theatrics. Chris turned out to be the only guy out of hundreds who fit the bill. I just thought he was a very entertaining and likeable person: he’s got this Labrador-like enthusiasm for absolutely everything.

How important was the song choice to the spot and was that track the only choice?

Walker: It was actually very important. It's hard to find a song that is infectious that has repeatability without hopefully becoming annoying. Weirdly it's one of those tracks that everyone knows but they only know it when you play it to them. The lyrics also somehow seemed to fit perfectly, even the bit about 'in the darkness, there's so much I want to do'.

We're guessing Paul Stanley wasn't singing about coffee when he first wrote it, but he could have been. A while ago we had another track in mind when we had a different message to communicate, but when we had to communicate how much Costa cares about its coffee the Kiss track stood up and presented itself. In the end there was only one track that seemed to hit what we were after.

Brown: The Kiss song was the only one on the table. It’s sinister how addictive that track is.

What was the toughest part of the whole process?

Brown: We wanted to have everyone up to their necks for real, and then have them pop up through the coffee for real, which turned out to be a complex bit of engineering. Being buried like that is a very uncomfortable thing for someone to do for even 10 minutes, irrespective of all the daft stuff we were asking them to do while they were in there. We kept them happy by scratching their noses and feeding them Chewits.

Walker: The song had to have the energy of the original, while still feeling like it's lots of people singing passionately. We didn't want it to sound like a bad X-Factor version, taking itself too seriously, or a football crowd singing out of tune. Hopefully we've managed to walk that line.

There are good singers in there as well as 'normal' people, and depending on where the camera is pointing at any particular time the balance favours one or the other. We've also gained a lot of respect for Paul Stanley since recording the different voices. The song is much more difficult to sing than he makes it sound. In fact we all had a go at singing. Let's just say Paul Stanley hasn't got much to worry about just yet.

How does it compare to working with all the monkeys in the previous Costa spot?

Brown: A much nicer experience. Monkeys only have two modes, inanimate or lunatic, which makes them very hard to work with.

When you’re ordering a coffee, what’s your drink of choice?

Brown: I’m a tea drinker, I’m afraid.

Walker: Two flat whites please.