Café Bustelo’s “Esta Aqui” campaign gets a cool makeover for its new iced coffee line. See how they keep the Latin vibes frosty.
For nearly a century, Café Bustelo has provided espresso-style coffee to caffeine lovers. While its iconic cans of ground coffee are a pantry staple for those who prefer a Latin American-inspired brew, consumers—especially younger ones—are increasingly opting for cold cups over hot ones: Over a third of individuals under the age of 35 consume iced coffee daily, per data cited by the J.M. Smucker brand.
To better engage with these consumers, Café Bustelo introduced Espresso-Style Iced Coffee Beverages to the refrigerated aisle this summer, remixing the brand’s recent marketing platform to introduce the product innovation.
Bustelo, in 2022, revamped its messaging, changing “Estuvo Aqui” (“was here”) to “Esta Aqui” (“is here”) in its marketing, effectively moving it from the past to the present. A pair of ads established an animated Bustelo world that keyed into the brand’s Latin American bona fides. Set to an original Spanish-language rap track, the spots used bold reds, yellows, and blues to highlight elements in a vibrant neighborhood with street art, jump rope, skateboards, and dominoes.
For the iced coffee launch, Bustelo’s ads give the worlds of the “Esta Aqui” creative a seasonal, product-focused twist. It’s summertime in the 30-second “Make It Latin” ad, with abuelas sweating on the block, vendors selling cold treats and kids opening fire hydrants to play in the water. When ad character Lina reaches into a fridge for an iced coffee, cold air freezes the hydrant’s water and turns the vendor’s cart into a snowmobile. A pair of 15-second spots, “Latin Storm” and “Grocery Run,” turn a hang session into a house party and a trip to the bodega into a tropical vacation, respectively.
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The new ads have solidified a sense of a “BusteloVerse,” explained Andres Rivera, the creative director of Brand New School who has served as creative director and lead designer on the “Esta Aqui” campaign.
“Drawing from the archetypes I grew up with was amazing — Titis, abuelas, the Coco Frio guy, and the bodega owner from Lina’s local store all get their moment in the spotlight. Lina’s world felt more vibrant than ever. We had the chance to illustrate these connections, observing Lina’s interactions with her family, friends, and neighborhood at various times while enjoying a delicious iced coffee,” Rivera said in emailed comments.
A tweak — not a teardown
The national 360 campaign is a product of Publicis’ Power of One solution for J.M. Smucker, with creative led by BBH USA. In the same way that Bustelo looked to bring its bold, distinctive flavor to iced coffee, the agency worked to deliver the same vibes in advertising by evolving the existing Bustelo ad platform.
“We want to tell the same stories that you’d find in this Bustelo world, but give it that icy makeover,” said Alan Wilson, senior vice president and group creative director at BBH. “We started with the stories that we want to tell — the ones that have that authentic, Latin energy and vibrancy that we love — that required ice cold drinks.”
As in the previous iteration, the magic blobs of Bustelo colors still float around, but the color palette is a little cooler this time. Instead of a new palette, the ads creatively reuse and reinterpret the existing color toolbox.
“This process led us to bend the original style guide’s rules: secondary colors became primary, gradients were used more effectively, and the overall color usage increased for a richer color narrative,” Rivera said.
Similarly, the campaign’s original song, “Sabor Único” (“Unique Flavor”) featuring Matahoney and created in partnership with Papa Music in Argentina, was remixed to nod to the sultry season and the ice-cold feel of the new product. But the effort is a tweak, not a teardown.
“The big challenge was not going full ice or full cold. You still want that Latin heat — that should be the main thing because we’re still in the ‘Esta Aqui’ campaign,” Wilson said. “It’s an extension of the world; it’s not a brand new thing.”
Even as its parent company has continued efforts to refresh dusty legacy brands, Bustelo has had the benefit of having the kind of cultural identity that brands have rushed to establish for themselves in recent years. The brand is mentioned in the classic musical Rent, appears on nail art and Etsy products, and has seen its cans repurposed in households for years (Rivera used to keep his action figures in them).
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“People love it, they’re obsessed with it,” Wilson said. “It’s always been in culture; we’re just shining a spotlight on those little moments.”
