Gold, silver or bronze awards to be announced June 7 in New York

MINNEAPOLIS, March 8, 2011 - Colle+McVoy has reached the finalist stage in two Effie Award categories. The Effie Awards are the preeminent award in the industry honoring the most effective marketing communications campaigns. Gold, Silver and Bronze Effie trophies will be announced at the 43rd annual Effie Awards on June 7 in New York.

Colle+McVoy is a finalist in the David vs. Goliath and Retail categories for its overall marketing approach and rebranding of Caribou Coffee, the world’s second-largest coffee retailer. To better communicate the soul of the company and differentiate Caribou Coffee from its more-corporate competitors with giant budgets, Colle+McVoy completely relaunched the brand. The revitalization included uncovering the brand’s core DNA and reviving its original tagline, "Life is short. Stay awake for it," and providing a new logo, packaging and in-store signage, as well as Web site and advertising support.

The relaunched brand has positively affected sales and customer traffic. Since engaging Colle+McVoy, Caribou Coffee has achieved significant net sales increases, outperforming the QSR category and increasing shareholder.

About the Effie Awards

The Effie Awards honor the most significant achievement in marketing communications: ideas that work. Known by advertisers and agencies globally as the outstanding award in the industry, the Effies recognize any and all forms of marketing communication that contribute to a brand’s success. Any marketing medium is eligible for an Effie, as long as results are proven, including print, TV, radio, outdoor, internet, guerrilla, digital, package design, events, street teams, PR, paid or unpaid media. Since 1968, winning an Effie has become a global symbol of achievement. Today, Effie celebrates effectiveness worldwide with the annual World Effie Festival, the Global Effie, the EURO Effie, Effie Asia Pacific (Effie APAC) and more than 35 national Effie programs. For more details, visit www.effie.org.

MINNEAPOLIS, March 1, 2010 - Caribou Coffee customers in all stores nationwide will notice a new coffee-centric caribou on their cups as they reach for their beverages today. As part of the company’s strategy to enhance its brand position and create new opportunities to engage customers, the 17-year-old brand has undergone a makeover orchestrated by Colle+McVoy, which will roll out during 2010 and into early 2011.

See the work

"The evolution of the Caribou Coffee identity will provide more people with more reasons to feel deeply connected to the brand" said Christine Fruechte, president and CEO, Colle+McVoy. "Whether you’re a customer or an employee, Caribou will be symbolic of living life to its fullest, and that’s rich territory for a brand like this to own."

"As we explored hundreds of iterations of the brand’s central elements, we made sure to stay true to the personality of the company, the vision in which it was founded, as well as the myriad reasons why people love Caribou Coffee," said Mike Caguin, executive creative director, Colle+McVoy.

The new brand look includes a new logo, color palette and design elements that bring fresh energy and broader context to the existing tagline: Life is short. Stay awake for it.® Previously the tagline focused on the benefits of caffeine, but Caribou has now shifted the element from a declarative statement to an opportunity for customer engagement on a more personal level; "stay awake" has grown to signify a "seize the day" attitude.

"We saw an opportunity to better express who we are and what we believe in as a company across all interactions with our customers," said Alfredo Martel, senior vice president of marketing, Caribou Coffee. "The new elements of our brand give us an opportunity to do that and to ask our customers to explore and share what staying awake means in their lives."

Beginning on March 1, the new look will be introduced via in-store elements such as napkins, cups, drink carriers, canteens and signage. A redesigned Web site and extensive out-of-home campaign launch April 1.

Bringing the Brand to Life
Central to this new rebranding, the company’s logo has been adapted to a simpler representation of the brand’s key identification. Most noticeably, the leaping caribou is now a coffee-brown color and in the brand’s playful nature, is assembled out of graphic elements, including a coffee bean at the heart of the animal and "C" shaped antlers. The caribou also now leaps to the right, signifying the company’s vision and movement toward the future.

The shield element in the original logo has been updated to a rich blue color with a new shape that echoes the shape of national park system signage, a nod to the Caribou founders’ hike in Alaska’s Denali National Park where they were inspired to begin the company.

A New Approach to Growth
Since Caribou Coffee CEO Mike Tattersfield’s arrival in August 2008, Caribou has shifted focus away from expansion and toward elevating all aspects of the brand experience to match its world-class coffee. The company’s new strategy has resulted in the most diverse and premium line of offerings since the company opened its first store in 1992.

"Our brand relaunch runs much deeper than the new logo design; it really signifies the evolution of our company. We are passionate about and committed to creating the best cup of coffee possible and an experience that extends beyond our products," said Martel. "We are working to ensure that all aspects of the customer experience are at the same premium level of quality as our coffee."

In November 2009, Caribou unveiled a menu of reformulated chocolate beverages made with all-natural gourmet chocolate from Guittard Chocolate Company of San Francisco. To boost its breakfast platform, the retailer introduced handcrafted oatmeal to its menu in January of this year and has been testing baked in-store pastry items at 25 stores in its home market of Minneapolis.