How influencer Emma Chamberlain built a thriving coffee brand

Brands on the Rise is a regular Ad Age feature spotlighting the marketing and business tactics of successful challenger brands. Read other installments here. While it’s no Starbucks when it comes to sheer size, Chamberlain Coffee is rising in its own niche–coffee created by influencers. The brand, created by YouTuber Emma Chamberlain in 2019, is expanding its product offerings and retail presence as its sales grow. Chamberlain Coffee’s competitors in the space range from Bankroll Coffee, created by personal finance influencer Graham Stephan, to Stella Blue Coffee, launched this November by Barstool Sports radio host Dan Katz. Chamberlain Coffee owes its popularity to Chamberlain, who became well known through YouTube and has 11.9 million followers on the platform as of December. She has since gained more mainstream celebrity, attending the Met Gala for the second time this year. Now, as the brand matures, it is expanding its marketing beyond her personality. “As we’ve evolved, I’ve taken a step back on having the brand be all about me and putting more love into creating what Chamberlain Coffee is on its own without me in your face as much on the packaging and in the promo. My essence comes through in more subtle ways and that’s exactly how I want it to be as we continue to grow,” said Chamberlain in an email interview with Ad Age. But the link with Chamberlain, who is featured on the brand’s website and posts about the coffee on her Instagram, is key to turning the product into an “aspirational beverage” and allowing drinkers to feel like they’re living her lifestyle, said Ben Grinspan, director of cultural strategy at Omnicom-owned culture consultancy Sparks & Honey, which does not work with the brand. This helps consumers justify its prices, which range from $16 to $22 for its bags of coffee, a higher price than similar products offered by Dunkin’, for example. Below, more on the coffee brand’s origin, strategy and plans for the future. Brands on the rise A look at up-and-coming brands disrupting their categories Read more here How it started Chamberlain started the brand in 2019 with its Instagram account and one product, a single-serve coffee bag. It started with “simple branding” to “see how consumers would respond,” Chamberlain said. Along with selling merch, Chamberlain previously came out with a planner in 2020. Chamberlain, from California, started her YouTube channel in high school and gained recognition for her editing style–full of close-ups, pauses and inserted text—and conversational way of communicating with her audience. In a 2019 profile, The New York Times wrote that she “invented the way people talk on YouTube now, particularly the way they communicate authenticity.” Although Chamberlain’s videos have included high-profile collaborations, in recent years her work has evolved to vlogs that show her doing calmer activities such as making soup, with her daily cups of coffee as a prominent feature. In September 2020, Chamberlain Coffee rebranded about a month after partnering with Copenhagen-based venture capital firm Blazar Capital. The brand worked with Blazar Capital and UTA Ventures to raise money and expand into a range of products that featured characters, such as Witty Fox Hazelnut and Sneaky Bat Pumpkin Spice blends, Chamberlain said. The rebrand came because “the overall brand feel was underdeveloped,” said Chamberlain. “We wanted the brand to have its own unique personality reflected throughout every product, whether that’s on a mug or on the packaging.” Following the rebrand, the company began growing its team. Chamberlain hired former Red Bull Strategy Director Chris Gallant as the company’s CEO in 2021, and Liz Ahern—who also previously worked at Red Bull—as its first chief marketing officer in November 2022. Chamberlain Coffee has released a new product almost every month this year. Frequent launches are “a way to continue to engage our existing customers to come back to the brand for new consumption occasions while also reaching new customers,” said a brand spokesperson in an email. Tipping point Gallant said it was hard to say whether there was one tipping point, but identified “a bunch of moments” that he thinks fueled growth, including diversifying into non-coffee products such as chai and matcha and other coffee accessories including straws, along with getting into retail. The brand in August announced that it had raised $7 million in Series A funding to expand its reach. It declined to disclose revenue. Chamberlain Coffee’s jump into in-store retail has included Erewhon in Autumn 2021, along with Bristol Farms in March, Sprouts in June and Pavilions in August, according to a spokesperson. “When you’re in trusted stores like Erewhon and Bristol Farms, consumers really see that as a proof point of legitimacy,” said Gallant. The brand’s matcha, launched in September 2021, became its best seller by units from November last year to this year. Its chai, launched in October, was its second best-selling product from November to December 2022, selling out completely in December. This was also seen as “proof that consumers wanted more from us,” said Gallant. Marketing strategies “We’re trying to create a brand that can live on its own but is deeply tied to Emma,” said Gallant. “You won’t see Emma posting every single story about Chamberlain Coffee” on social media, he said. By the same token, “you won’t see us overusing her on our social media.” Chamberlain Coffee’s marketing strategy has “always been heavily social,” said Ahern. Its biggest audience is on Instagram and TikTok, with 530,000 followers and 344,000 followers, respectively, as of December. It also has accounts on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. It uses The Colony Creative as its social agency with Qualify Digital Labs for paid media work. The brand plans to expand to other platforms such as podcasts and a YouTube content series, said Ahern. Chamberlain representatives declined to provide details on where it spends on paid media. Chamberlain Coffee takes a “more playful approach” in comparison to its coffee company competitors, which “tend to be very serious,” said Ahern. Creating different characters for the coffee including an owl and a tiger focuses on “how you’re going to feel” rather than how other brands focus on the taste of the coffee, said Erin LaBranche, a strategist at R/GA, which doesn’t work with the brand. The characters appear on the packaging and in the product names, such as a bird sipping a cup for “Gentle Hummingbird Chai.” They are also featured in the brand’s advertising, such a Halloween mural during the brand’s October collaboration with Carrera Cafe in West Hollywood. View this post on Instagram A post shared by CHAMBERLAIN COFFEE (@chamberlaincoffee) The brand works with Copenhagen-based agency Kontrapunkt to create its packaging. Chamberlain Coffee has also embarked upon partnerships to broaden its reach in addition to its work with Carrera Cafe. This includes working with other coffee companies, including Brooklyn-based Blank Street Coffee, for experiential activations such as launching a pop-up shop in New York that sold Chamberlain Coffee drinks and decorated the coffee shop’s window in the brand’s animal characters. It has also engaged in food partnerships, including a collaboration with OffLimits Cereal and creating cold-brew coffee ice cream in June with Craig’s Vegan. The coffee brand also partnered with creamer company NutPods to create dairy-free almond and coconut milk-based creamers. It went further afield to work with lemonade company Swoon to create matcha-flavored lemonade in May 2022. Outside of food, the brand has partnered with skincare company bliss to sell a limited-edition orange cream coffee together with orange skin cream. View this post on Instagram A post shared by CHAMBERLAIN COFFEE (@chamberlaincoffee) What experts are saying Grinspan suggested Chamberlain Coffee is not trying to compete price-wise with brands such as La Colombe. “What you’re paying for is the premium connection you get to Emma Chamberlain’s brand,” he said. As a result, he said, “if she moves off of the brand, people might not be interested in it.” LaBranche added that the appeal of the brand hinges upon the idea that Chamberlain’s persona on social media is more “laid back” and gives the impression that she’s more of “a real person.” Her vlogs prominently feature coffee and, as a result, the brand is a “natural extension” of Chamberlain’s content, rather than something she is putting all her time into, said LaBranche. What’s next “A big focus for us in the next year, aside from our continued innovation, is retail expansion and growing our brand awareness,” Chamberlain said via email. Gallant added that the brand is planning to push into the office and home space and it is working on several other product launches for next year. Ad Age Year in Review 2022 The year's biggest news, trends and takeaways Click here

How influencer Emma Chamberlain built a thriving coffee brand

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