A #WholeLatteLove Campaign

A few months ago I had read this incredible story about Braden Walker the owner of the Redhawk Coffee Shop that opened on Meyran Avenue this past year. Braden was working as a barista at a few different places, including running his Redhawk Coffee Truck that he used to cater to different locations in Pittsburgh. One day he was in a horrific car accident that left him with multiple broken bones and put him out of work for a long time. After getting a huge support from the local and coffee community Braden was able to receive enough funds to support he and his family during the time that he was out of work. This support would eventually inspire him to find a place to set up a permanent location for his Redhawk Coffee Shop rather than only functioning out of the truck. One of my favorite things that I took away from this article written by the Pitt News, was how much Braden looked forward to really being a part of the Oakland community. He said in a quote from the article, “The truck is just strangers day after day, I just want to see the same faces every day.” It was that commitment to learning about his customers that made me want to create a campaign that would reflect Braden’s enthusiasm towards the local community. Redhawk is also known for the hearts that they design into their lattes before handing them to their customers.

I thought that by combining both the heart designed into the latte and the love of the community, a campaign that highlighted both of these would not only be a great way to draw more business to the coffee shop, but it would also work to establish and support the brand that Braden wants to provide as a local business. The campaign that I have designed also utilizes the more modern social media approach to spreading the word, as the city of Oakland is greatly comprised of technologically connected college students. My target audience is mainly college students but it is also other members of the local community. This includes both residents and employees that work within the surrounding area, including hospital staff, teachers, restaurant workers, etc. Redhawk has a large variety of social platforms including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and the posts introducing and maintaining the campaign are designed to utilize all of their platforms. Above each of my posts I placed social markers to showcase which posts would be posted on which social media site in order to establish a variety, but also create messages that would be best suited for a certain platform.

This campaign follows a story line in several different ways. It first introduces Braden as a person and shows his struggles as well as his successes, and promotes his passion for the coffee industry. It poses a call for action to its audience by 1. Rewarding them with the goal of potentially winning a free month of lattes, but 2. It reminds us to show compassion to those we share this great local community with. By allowing others to share their posts and stories of how they spread a #WholeLatteLove we are able to see small bits into different story lines of the customers that make up Redhawk.

-Ashleigh Simpson