Virtual Coffee Tasting With AppDynamics
This year has encouraged businesses to think outside the box on how they can communicate and show appreciation to their key stakeholders.
GEM worked together with AppDynamics (a Cisco Company) to create a memorable, virtual coffee tasting experience for top clients across the GCC region. The aim of this activation was not only to thank loyal customers for their ongoing support of the company over the years but also to demonstrate the capabilities of Cisco WebEx as an alternative for other video conferencing software.
GEM worked closely with one of the leading local coffee roasteries in the UAE to create a customized experience for the participants. This included a 2-hour virtual coffee tasting headed by one of the leading coffee connoisseurs in the region, along with a sustainably designed coffee kit which included 4 extremely rare coffee varieties to try along with a French press.
Each of the 15 participants received their coffee kits delivered to their home a couple days before the activation to ensure the freshness of the coffee for the tasting experience. On the 6th of October all the participants logged on through Cisco WebEX to participate in the tasting. Along with each kit each person received a ‘cheat sheet’ with information on the four varieties of coffee, except they didn’t know which explanation belonged to which coffee. During the tasting participants were coached on how to use the French press and achieve the best tasting coffee while being encouraged to try to guess which coffee they were tasting and why and to share memories or stories about what role coffee has played in their lives.
Amongst these extraordinary coffees was a coffee from Ethiopia (Harrar Gerawa) who’s naturally occurring crop grows elevated between 1400-6000m and dates back to 700BC making it one of the first documentation of coffee beans traded. Due to global warming this coffee will most likely only have 50 more harvests before the land becomes desolate which emphasizes its rarity and how fortunate we were to have tried it.
Overall the virtual tasting was a memorable experience which each person learnt from, leaving a long-standing positive impression on the participants of the AppDynamics brand. Certain members who initially were not interested in coffee before the tasting stating that “their coffee journey was going to start today”. The client (AppDynamics) expressed their appreciation for the event and complemented the virtual set up along with the team’s charisma and knowledge.
