San Francisco Bay Coffee and Agency of Record, Cutwater, Brew Up Animated, Eco-Friendly Campaign

Can a sip of coffee spark progress? Family-owned company rolls out its first-ever brand awareness endeavor and illustrates a sustainable future.

A startling statistic: 80 million plastic coffee pods go into landfills daily. One week of this waste could circle the Earth, while one day could stretch from NY to SF.

Committed to using coffee as a vehicle to create enduring change, the responsibly-sourced coffee brand, San Francisco Bay Coffee – which is owned by the Rogers Family Company – along with its creative and media agency of record, Cutwater, have partnered together to launch an all-new brand platform and integrated campaign.

The brand platform, entitled “One Small Sip For a Better Tomorrow”, illustrates how positive change starts with small steps, such as choosing San Francisco Bay Coffee. The campaign, anchored by a series of animated films, will run throughout paid and owned channels. The creative embraces playful, vibrant animation and highlights the brand’s certified commercially compostable OneCUP™ coffee pods. The imagery shows coffee lovers facing floods of plastic pods coming from their coffee mugs at home, the office, the road, and more.

Production and animation were spearheaded by Psyop and Wizz. The pieces were brought to life by directing duo Remus & Kiki. Music, sound design, and audio post were executed by Antfood.

“San Francisco Bay Coffee is the David in a category of Goliaths, yet they hold more true to values and practices we all want from our coffee brands. In addition to great tasting coffee, they innovate toward a better tomorrow. So if we want to make these great leaps of change, all it now takes is one small sip”, explains Cutwater Founder and COO Chuck McBride. “We chose animation because the story needed a special way to help people understand the benefits of compostable pods in a not too serious way.”

The work follows San Francisco Bay Coffee appointing Cutwater the creative and media agency of record title, a first-ever milestone for the brand.

San Francisco Bay Coffee Director of Marketing Jennifer Greenberg adds, “San Francisco Bay Coffee is proudly farm-to-mug, and we encourage coffee enthusiasts everywhere to make a difference in the world before they even leave the house by choosing our OneCUP coffee pods. This effort signals our very first ad campaign, a big moment in our brand evolution. In partnership with Cutwater, we developed a vast content library to help drive brand awareness and share our ongoing mission to provide great tasting coffee while also maintaining a focus on sustainability.”

The media strategy boasts a robust buy across video, social, digital display, audio, OOH, e-commerce, and search.

According to Cutwater Head of Media and Communications Lizzy Ryan, “Stressors like doomscrolling and hustle culture make it almost impossible to feel optimistic. Coffee rituals and habits can help lift moods and fight hyper-fatigue. We pursued a full-funnel approach and targeted values-driven consumers, especially those passionate about the environment.”

San Francisco Bay Coffee products are available for purchase online.

Credits:

Client: San Francisco Bay Coffee
Director of Marketing: Jennifer Greenberg
Digital Marketing Manager: Sarah Cress
Brand Manager: Ingrid Barrientos
Associate Brand Manager: Molly Fitzgerald

Agency: Cutwater
Founder and Chief Creative Officer: Chuck McBride
Principal and President: Christian Hughes
Creative Director: Amy Su
Creative Director: Teddy Miller
Head of Production & Executive Producer: Doug Stivers
Senior Designer: Patrick Nelson
Senior Copywriter: Taylor Smith
Group Account Director: Matt Allen
Account Director: Brett Harris
Senior Project Manager: Ana Elejalde
Strategy Lead: Illana Bryant
Head of Media and Communications: Lizzy Ryan
Associate Director, Media Strategy: Caitlin Delaney

Production Company: Psyop
Executive Producer: Andrew Linsk
Producer: Tapy Noun

Production / Animation Studio: Wizz
Directors: Remus & Kiki
Production / Animation Studio: Wizz
Executive Producer: Claire Madigan
Production Coordinator: Anne Pulce

Concept Art: Remus & Kiki
Storyboard: Remus & Kiki
Character Design: Remus & Kiki
Colorboard: Turcin Soylu
Backgrounds: Turcin Soylu & Ines Fragueiro
Layout Posing: Angèle Legras
Lead Animation: Pierre Rutz
Animators: Roman Guillanton, Rénalya Mirande-Ney, Kaycee Nwakudu
Clean Up & Shadow References: Remus & Kiki
Animation Clean up: Pudoc
Conform: Leonard Ferrer
2D FX: Louis Quemeneur
Animation Interns: Jean Courtois, Lazarine Biaud
Compositing: Emilie Chouabe

Music / Sound Design / Audio Post: Antfood
Executive Creative Director: Wilson Brown
Executive Producer: Sue Lee
Creative Lead: Josh Heath
Composer: Bennett Eiferman
Composer: Dalton Harts
Composer/Audio Engineer: Linton Smith II
Producer: Charlie Blasberg
Production Coordinator: Katie Hansen

Social Media:

Facebook: @cutwater

Instagram: @cutwateragency

X: @CutwaterAgency

LinkedIn: Cutwater

Facebook: San Francisco Bay Coffee

Instagram: @sfbaycoffee

LinkedIn: San Francisco Bay Coffee

About Cutwater:

Cutwater is an independent creative and media agency with offices in San Francisco and New York City. Headed by advertising thought leaders, Founder / CCO Chuck McBride and Principal / President Christian Hughes, the agency prides itself on building distinctive campaigns for challenger and legacy brands alike. These have included the likes of Hartz, MoneyGram, Russell Stover, Brawny, Ray-Ban, and more. https://www.cutwateragency.com/

About San Francisco Bay Coffee:

Founded by Jon and Barbara Rogers in 1979, San Francisco Bay Coffee is one of the best coffee makers not only in California but the whole world! Roasting over 30 million pounds of coffee annually, San Francisco Bay Coffee believes that everyone who touches the coffee, from the plants to roasted beans to the steaming cup, should benefit from the process. Socially and environmentally conscious, San Francisco Bay Coffee is committed to buying the majority of coffee directly from the 32,000 collaborating farmers to ensure fair pay. Moreover, San Francisco Bay Coffee has built 63 schools, 1,700 housing complexes, and dozens of medical and dental centers in partner communities. In 40 years of producing exceptional coffee, San Francisco Bay Coffee has donated more than 10 million coffee plants to coffee-providing farmers. To San Francisco Bay Coffee, everyone is family and should be treated as such!