Background

For over 150 years, J.J. Darboven has been shaping the tradition-rich coffee history of the Hanseatic City of Hamburg. Today, the family business is managed by Albert Darboven, the fourth generation of his family to do so. With a comprehensive range of coffee, tea and cocoa products, the company is the market leader in the out-of-home market (AHM) and stands for quality, tradition and innovation.

ORCA van Loon has been supporting J.J. Darboven's public relations work since the beginning of 2023, both for the entire brand portfolio in the food service industry and for selected focus brands in food retailing. In addition, we support the communication of various projects, such as the IDEE-Förderpreis, the only nationwide award for innovative and sustainable start-ups by women, or the Schattenbaumprojekt, with which J.J. Darboven is committed to coffee cultivation adapted to climate change.

Assignment

ORCA van Loon was commissioned to provide strategic communications advice and comprehensive PR support to the long-established Hamburg-based company. The aim is to further strengthen awareness of J.J. Darboven and to position the company as a strong partner for the hospitality industry as a hot beverage expert. At the same time, broad media attention is to be generated for the individual brands, product innovations and other focus topics.

Idea and Implementation

By addressing the media individually with the help of personally tailored storylines and topic settings, ORCA van Loon succeeded on the one hand in establishing strong contacts with journalists in the out-of-home sector and on the other hand in placing qualitative stories in key media in the industry, thereby generating attention. In addition, classic press releases complemented the mix of measures. We developed communication strategies for the Schattenbaum project and the IDEE promotional prize to efficiently achieve the communicative goals. For the IDEE promotional prize, the press invitation management, for which ORCA van Loon was responsible, is particularly noteworthy. Furthermore, ORCA van Loon regularly provided support in editing blog posts on the company website and was responsible for coordinating the placement of advertisements in print and online trade press media.

Result

Thanks to targeted media work, we were able to generate numerous publications in trade and consumer media and thus successfully and visibly position the individual brands. This has significantly increased awareness of J.J. Darboven and helped to sustainably strengthen the position of the long-established Hamburg-based company in the hot drinks sector. At the same time, our communication around the IDEE Sponsorship Award 2023 has enabled us to generate numerous high-quality applications from up-and-coming companies and female founders at J.J. Darboven. This has also helped us to further enhance the reputation of the award.