Coffee And Augmented Reality Partnered Up To Offer People Free Groceries
Eight O’Clock Coffee introduces The Great Coffee Break: a digital escape room game people can play to win a year of free groceries.
Players can visit GreatCoffeeBreak.com from June 17 through August 11 to solve coffee-themed puzzles in Eight O’Clock’s digital game designed by Escape the Room—the premiere live game and entertainment company in the United States.
Eight O’Clock Coffee, America’s original gourmet coffee, announced the release of The Great Coffee Break: a digital escape room game that people can play for the chance to win a year of free groceries.
The Great Coffee Break is the first augmented reality-triggered digital game designed by Escape the Room, and can be launched by scanning any Eight O’Clock Coffee package with the Shazam app, or by going directly to GreatCoffeeBreak.com. Set in a fictitious animated roastery, players will solve coffee-themed puzzles to help bags of Eight O’Clock “escape the roastery.”
The Great Coffee Break will run until August 11, 2018, and eight people will win the grand prize: free groceries for a year.
Since 1859, generations of Americans have been connecting over Eight O’Clock – enjoying rich, smooth coffee as they share conversations, celebrate special moments and play games together. The Great Coffee Break will provide consumers with a new way to experience their love of coffee and gaming by leveraging the escape room trend that has grown exponentially in recent years.
Players of the Great Coffee Break will explore different virtual rooms within the roastery to find clues, solve puzzles, and complete the mission. Eight O’Clock Coffee’s game is designed to facilitate the satisfying feeling of discovery that players experience in physical escape rooms—which have grown in the U.S. from 22 in 2014 to about 2,300 today.
“With the Great Coffee Break, we are tapping into one of the hottest emerging trends in a way that’s meaningful to coffee drinkers and relevant to today’s lifestyle,” said Michael Scalera, Senior Brand Manager at Eight O’Clock Coffee. “Our fans tell us all the time that enjoying Eight O’Clock Coffee is key to their day – and it’s certainly key to solving the Great Coffee Break.”
“Eight O’Clock Coffee has long provided a meaningful way to bring people together, as does Escape the Room—so putting our brands together was a natural fit,” said Victor Blake, Founder and CEO of Escape the Room. “Bringing both of these experiences to life virtually in a way that makes sense for a solo player was my primary inspiration for The Great Coffee Break game. I’m thrilled with how the game turned out, and I think people will really enjoy playing, hopefully with a cup of Eight O’Clock in their hand!”
Scalera added that The Great Coffee Break is a game; not a true reflection of the process at Eight O’Clock’s roasting facility in Landover, MD. “We have to keep some secrets, after all!”
An American family tradition since 1859, Eight O’Clock Coffee joined the Tata Global Beverages family of brands in 2006. This beloved brand with whole bean coffee heritage has been brewed with passion for over 150 years and remains a top five brand in the U.S. coffee segment today, by delivering consistent quality, great taste and value.
Eight O’Clock has a full range of varieties, medium to dark roasts, single origin and indulgent flavors, available in whole bean, ground and single-serve forms. Its Center of Excellence sources its high-quality Arabica beans from the world’s best origins; the beans are then expertly blended, roasted and packaged at the brand’s facility in Landover, MD.
