Danone Recreates Coffeehouse Vibe at Home
Danone North America encouraged shoppers to bring the coffee shop experience home in a multi-touchpoint campaign.
The program, called Seasonal Coffeehouse Home'Rista, brought together in-store activations with social influencers and digital marketing, including retail media. It kicked off in September 2025 and concluded in December.
Danone leveraged its portfolio of limited-time seasonal flavors for brands such as International Delight, Silk and Stok.
Among the insights Danone used to create the program was what its marketers call the barista gap statistic — 53% of people aren't fully satisfied with the coffee they make at home.
"We knew that our target was aware of the savings of making coffee at home, but didn't really know how to do it," says Erin Anderson, Danone senior director, e-commerce and omni-activation. "That's where the power of scale comes in.
"If you think about our creamers, our cold brew, our foam — it can all be used together to create this coffee solution. And we also create tea recipes, too, for those non-coffee drinkers. So, it was all about becoming a home barista [or 'home'rista']."
The first pulse of the program had a pumpkin spice theme before transitioning to winter holiday flavors such as peppermint mocha and frosted sugar cookie.
Danone also utilized a "Buy 2, Get $5" promotion nationwide. Shoppers who bought two participating products and uploaded receipts via a promotional web page received $5 via Venmo or PayPal.
In Stores
Neck hangers with "limited-time only" messaging and wobblers plugged the national promotion at store shelves.
Cooler displays stocked with Danone SKUs and varying amounts of signage supported the program. Select Kroger locations had sampling tables adorned with campaign creative positioned near the frozen food department.
Danone held its first-ever Walmart parking lot sampling events at 20 of the retailer's stores from Sept. 17 through Oct. 14. Shoppers were able to enjoy coffee drinks made with Danone products from a campaign-themed food truck.
Sampling was held at locations within four markets — Northwest Arkansas, North Dallas, Denver and Kansas City — due to the strong Walmart and Danone presence in those areas, Anderson says.
The Partners
The following companies helped bring Danone's "Seasonal Coffeehouse Home'Rista" program to life:
- A2 Influence
- Acosta
- Breaktime Media
- Chicory
- Cooler Management
- InMarket
- Mosaic
- Retail Sports Marketing (RSM)
- TPN
Online
The creator portion of the program was led by influencer Dan Pelosi, known online as Grossy Pelosi. In his posts, Pelosi demonstrated how to make coffeehouse-style drinks using Danone products.
Including Pelosi, there were 17 participating influencers that posted more than 40 pieces of content across Instagram, TikTok and YouTube, Anderson says. The influencer creative was amplified on Target's website and Walmart's TikTok account.
Through InMarket, some shoppers received full-screen 1-to-1 mobile ads on their devices when they walked into participating stores. The company also served consumers offsite display ads powered by real-time location, behavioral insights and contextual relevance.
For retail media activations, Danone worked with Instacart as well as Kroger Precision Marketing, Target's Roundel and Walmart Connect.
Danone had a dedicated brand page on Walmart.com for the campaign. It featured seasonal recipes, videos and a full product carousel.
There was consistent program messaging and enhanced content on all 142 participating product detail pages across Amazon, Instacart and Walmart.
The Results
Initial available metrics show signs of success. For the Walmart sampling events alone, there were an estimated 1.5 million impressions and about 1,600 drinks served. A mix of organic and paid social with the retailer had more than 1 million views across platforms.
Across Kroger, Target and Albertsons stores, the effort has logged nearly 800,000 POS materials printed and distributed.
In all, the program has generated more than 400 million impressions across channels.
"Our Seasonal Coffeehouse scale program is exceeding expectations," Anderson says. "Early results show bigger baskets, more new-to-brand buyers and strong sales lift, confirming the program is driving awareness, engagement and conversion."
