Canadian franchise Tim Horton is pairing fresh coffee with fresh news in the UAE. Recognizing the parallels between news and coffee, Y&R Dubai adapted Tim Hortons’ coffee cup sleeves turning them into an advertising medium for Gulf News. The news oulets tweets are printed on the coffee sleeves in real-time so that drinkers can stay up to date. In a time where social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook have actively participated in recent political events in the region, this added feature is reflective of a society that is plugged in digitally.

Y&R was hired by Gulf News to help increase subscription and readership, and this particular format of marketing has definitely been successful in increasing traffic on the Gulf News website. The results speak for themselves with a 41 per cent increase in website traffic, and up to 3,000 new Gulf News Twitter followers.

So how does it work exactly? Well, every sleeve is now printed at the point of sale using a special printer at Tim Hortons that pulls tweets from the Gulf News Twitter Account. Customers also have a URL and QR code on the sleeve directing them to the Gulf News website for breaking news and full stories.

Check out the video below explaining the campaign in further detail:

Y&R Dubai