Dive Brief:
- Maxwell House is running a tongue-in-cheek campaign that rebrands the 133-year-old Kraft Heinz coffee label as Maxwell Apartment, per details shared with Marketing Dive.
- Consumers can purchase Maxwell Apartment coffee on Amazon, securing a year’s worth of product for less than $40, while supplies last. The offer includes rebranded canisters and a 12-month “lease.”
- The effort nods to the current tough economic climate while spotlighting the value of Maxwell House coffee. The campaign, with strategy and production led by agency Rethink, includes paid media across Meta and TikTok, a creator partnership and paid social content.
Dive Insight:
Maxwell House is having some fun with its name and the grim statistics around the possibility of younger generations owning a home in its latest campaign. The first-time homebuyer market share hit a historic low (24%), while home buyers’ ages hit an all-time high (56 years) in 2024, per data from the National Association of Realtors.
“We saw something fun hiding in plain sight — our brand has the word ‘house’ in it. But at a time when daily life has become more expensive, a lot of people are living that apartment life,” said Zachary Bautista, partner and group creative director at Rethink, in a statement. “Maxwell Apartment is our way of showing that great coffee doesn’t have to come with a premium price tag.”
The Kraft Heinz label is appealing to millennial and Gen Z consumers who perhaps can’t afford a house but can rent an apartment and a year’s supply of its coffee. The roughly $40 package, which includes rebranded tubs bearing the Maxwell Apartment name, is available for a limited time on Amazon beginning on National Coffee Day (Sept. 29). The offer looks to deliver value for coffee drinkers whose daily café trips can accumulate a steep price tag over the course of a year.
The campaign includes media buys across Meta and TikTok, paired with strategic audience targeting, putting Kraft Heinz among the growing ranks of CPG marketers that are adopting a social-first approach to marketing. Along with online video, the effort includes a creator partnership and paid social content.
“Maxwell House will always be affordable, but Maxwell House? In this economy?” a narrator says in one of the ads, before introducing Maxwell Apartment as the “same affordable coffee you love, now with an even more affordable name.”
Rethink led campaign creation, with PR and creator support from Zeno Group, paid media support from Carat and social support from The Kitchen, an in-house Kraft Heinz unit. The stunt rebrand is an extension of Maxwell House’s “Good to the Last Drop” platform. A second campaign, “Max Your Savings,” will launch via YouTube and The Trade Desk on Oct. 27.
Parent company Kraft Heinz this month announced plans to split into two companies, reversing much of the work of a $46 billion merger in 2015. One company will house sauces, spreads, seasonings and shelf-stable meals while the second will focus on grocery brands including Maxwell House, Oscar Mayer, Kraft Singles and Lunchables. The latter will be overseen by Kraft Heinz CEO Carlos Abrams-Rivera.
