Kraft Foods and SPN Ogilvy Create the Most Special Coffee Set in Russia

A unique coffee set of 10 cups 2*2 meters high painted by famous contemporary Russian artists has appeared on the Yelagin Island in St Petersburg. This art project entitled Coffee Cup 2010 St Petersburg is the way Kraft Foods Rus celebrates the 10th anniversary of its freeze dried coffee plant and, in addition, the 300th anniversary of coffee traditions in Russia.

The project is supported by the Russian Ministry of Culture and the St Petersburg City Committee for Culture. SPN Ogilvy is handling the campaign.
“Looking for ideas on how to celebrate the plant’s anniversary we dug into history and found out that in 1710, exactly 300 years ago, the first coffee set was brought to Russia! It was given by the Saxon Prince-Elector August to Peter the Great, the founder of St Petersburg”, tells Andrey Barannikov, CEO of SPN Ogilvy. “Thus, St Petersburg, which is considered to be the cultural capital of Russia, has also become its coffee capital: it’s from here the tradition of drinking coffee spread all over Russia!”

The two images of St Petersburg have made up the exhibition project Coffee Cup 2010, the motto of which stated, “Art Starts with a Cup of Coffee”. A unique art performance became the highlight of the project: 10 famous Russian artists were invited to paint 10 coffee cups 2*2 m in the open air, in front of the audience. The range of artists included Dmitriy Shagin, Sergey “Africa” Bugaev, Kirill Miller, Konstantin Zvezdochetov, Georgiy Litichevskiy, Georgiy Ostretsov and Alexander Petrelli, as well as representatives of the renowned “Mitki” art union. The topic of each cup’s design featured what coffee is for each of the artists.

The major event was preceded by a press conference and a presentation at the Kraft Foods plant near St Petersburg. Journalists were invited… for a cup of coffee! The press conference setting represented a café: coffee cups for tables, sugar cubes for chairs, press kits for menus, coffee crosswords for table napkins. Then the plant employees and the media were shown the first giant cup, which will remain at the plant to commemorate the anniversary and the unique initiative of Kraft Foods. Afterwards, a truck with the cups to be painted was seen off to the beach of the Peter and Paul Fortress in St Petersburg, where on July, 24th a citywide festival with the art performance took place.

“The atmosphere at the event was just amazing,” says Jana Guskova, Corporate Affairs and Government Relations Director of Kraft Foods Rus. “Usually reluctant to unveil the creative process for the public, the artists, however, were truly enjoying working in full view: they chatted with the visitors and gave authographs. Thus, our project has shown to both the audience and the artists two main advantages of coffee: this drink brings, first, inspiration and, second, the joy of communication. Because an invite for a coffee means, “Let’s meet and catch up!””

“An exhibition of painted sculptures in the urban surroundings is not a brand new idea. The novelty is that the art objects were to be created in the real time, in public”, explains Lyudmila Antonenko, Head of Entertainment Management Practice at SPN Ogilvy.

The “action painting” was accompanied by a colorful entertainment program. Acts on the stage represented coffee traditions of various nations, African songs and drums telling that coffee originates from the Black Continent, and Irish tap dancers showing what Irish coffee is.

And, of course, there was much, much real coffee. Visitors could try it, prepared in a variety of ways, in special tasting zones. The energizing drink and the creative blast from the artists woke up a thirst for creativity in the guests as well, which they could satisfy at numerous craft points. The visitors could make applications and bijouterie of coffee beans, painted their own porcelain cups or make their own input in the design of “The People’s Cop”, the 11th 2-meter masterpiece, etc.

That something unusual was going on at beach of the Peter and Paul Fortress one could notice even from the other side of the Neva River: a unique installation “Floating Cups” was made right on the water: five 2*2 meter cups of foam plastic were floating on the waves.
The citywide festival was visited by over 10 000 citizens and tourists. See on Youtube how the cups were being painted:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FJt7wvdi4M

On August, 13th the 11 cups (including “The People’s Cup”) were established in a park on the Yelagin Island. It is also planned to make a porcelain coffee set representing the small copies of the unique cups. All receipts from sales of these coffee sets will be given for charity purposes.