Written by
Abbie Mason
£1 Coffees, Free Pudding and the Marketing Power of a Queue
If there’s one thing we’ve loved seeing this month, it’s brands proving you don’t need a huge marketing budget to get people talking.
Introduction
Sometimes, all it takes is a great product,
a clever offer and a queue long enough to make everyone walking past think, what’s going on over there?
Here are three promotions that caught our eye this July and why they worked so well.
P.Y.O. kept the launch buzz going
Healthy grab-and-go brand P.Y.O. kept the momentum around its new Broadgate location going with a short-term £1 coffee offer during the first week of July.
Simple, clear and very easy to share.
A £1 coffee is rarely just a £1 coffee. It can turn into breakfast, lunch later that day, a recommendation in the office group chat or a new Instagram follow.
That’s the beauty of a well-timed promotion. It gives people a low-risk reason to try somewhere new, creates urgency and keeps the launch conversation going without permanently discounting the product.
Rise & Fold nailed the opening weekend
If you’ve been anywhere near Bloomsbury recently, chances are you’ve seen the queue outside Rise & Fold.
Founded by Chin Teow, the entrepreneur behind Tsujiri, the bakery brings together European baking techniques with flavours inspired by Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore.
Think Japanese salt bread, yuzu prawn rolls and plenty of matcha. You can read more about the concept in Brunswick’s feature on Rise & Fold.
To celebrate opening weekend, the bakery offered £1 coffee or matcha with any pastry.
It’s such a simple idea, but it’s a clever one.
Rather than discounting the hero product, the offer encouraged people to buy a pastry first, introducing them to the drinks menu at the same time.
The result was a busy bakery, plenty of social content and exactly the kind of launch people wanted to be part of.
VNILLA proved queues are still one of the best adverts you can buy
When VNILLA opened its Camden store, it gave free banana pudding to the first 200 customers.
The result was huge queues, loads of social content and plenty of FOMO.
Its tagline says it all.
The Proof Is In The Pudding.
Everyone walking past wanted to know what they were missing, while Instagram and TikTok did what they do best.
The giveaway wasn’t really about giving away dessert. It was about creating something people wanted to be part of, photograph and share.
You can see more from the brand on VNILLA’s Instagram.
The real product wasn’t the coffee or the pudding
All three brands understood the same thing.
The offer gets people through the door.
Everything that happens next is where the real value sits.
A coffee turns into breakfast. A discounted drink leads to a pastry sale. A free pudding becomes a returning customer. One Instagram Story introduces the brand to hundreds of new people.
Better still, customers become part of the marketing team.
They queue, post, tag their mates and create content that feels more genuine than a polished advert ever could.
And the value can stretch even further. New followers, email sign-ups, website traffic and a warm audience you can speak to again.
Conclusion
So what’s the takeaway
The best promotions aren’t really about discounting. They’re about creating excitement, urgency and a reason to visit now rather than next week. P.Y.O. used a short-term offer to keep the buzz around its new Broadgate location going. Rise & Fold used a £1 drink to drive pastry sales and create a busy opening weekend. VNILLA turned 200 free puddings into queues, content and city-wide awareness. Three simple ideas, three very different brands and one very clear lesson. Sometimes the smartest marketing isn’t shouting louder. It’s giving people a reason to join the queue.