White Horse Coffee Melbourne Takeover

In the month of July, White Horse Coffee has bombarded the walls of some of Melbourne's iconic streets to make a statement to the 'country's coffee capital'. But according to who? That's right, it's mostly Melburnians. Who woulda thought? Insert laughing and crying emoji, here. Or, rolling of the eyes. Both work equally well.

We're kidding! Kinda. But what we're not kidding about is our love for Melbourne vibes: the cultural diversity, the unique grasp of hospitality, and the fact that you can walk for 35 minutes between Fitzroy and Brunswick and pass world-class filter bars, some of the best bites that the city has to offer - from a levelled-up banh mi joint with a stylish Asian-Bruswick-local sandwich craftsman, brandishing an orange shirt with 4 front buttons undone - respect to you, sir - to some of the OG sanga establishments who helped ballooon the last few years of sandwich crazinesss, to a homely Polish restaurant. I mean, who's doing Polish food well and making it accessible?!

This, we cannot deny! But the street art. Pause and take a breath. When it comes to the gritty walls of Melbourne, we have to concede... kings to you! And here birthed our poster campain concept, as part of what we're calling our 'Golden Bean Tour'.

Let's chat about our poster 'takeover' campaign. After winning the Overall Golden Bean Roasting Championship in October last year, we've been on a mission to share our love of coffee as wide as possible! Why? For PR and brand-building, sure. But we think that kind of momentum is short-lived. It's the 16 years of sharing hospitality experiences with our local communities, our customers, our hard-working staff, the friends and family who've been there from 2008, to those who've only just found out that the real 'White Horse' is not a pub in Sydney's Surry Hills, nor is it a form of 'nose candy' if you're going by the urban dictionary definition (a most trustworthy source). Rather, It's a coffee movement which started in Sutherland in 2008 with the core mantra 'coffee for the community'. The White Horse representing beauty, purity, and strength. These values we can get behind! 

So, why the poster campaign? Great question! We wanted something aesthetic, tangible and large scale. Not just the number of impressions on a social post, or an insta ad. We wanted to have a crack at taking people off their screens, with something in the 'real world'. No, we're not about to 'hop' (rabbit pun intended) into a dialogue about the matrix and everything down that rabbit hole -see what we did there? Lame, but had to be done. Let's move on!

Rather, we wanted to celebrate those moments when you're picking up your daily coffee, or maybe you've jumped off a zoom meeting and you're ducking out to your local, and you walk past some gritty streets. We wanted to be part of that story.  

This all said, we think there's something very beautiful and transient about a poster campaign. Hundreds of posters are put up in a flash across the city, and you wait a few weeks. Now, if the're not damaged by the weather - note, in the first three days of our campaign we experienced terrential rain - deformed by local vandals, or just fall off due to insufficent wheat paste, before long they are still gone and replaced by the next music festival or art exhibtion on the promo agenda. It's sad but poetic. Life metaphors everywhere, and we love that! 

You may be thinking 'why did Dom rip down part of a poster?' Maybe, he wanted to take the trophy with him? Maybe. But let's be real! Not a chance he's fitting that into his carry-on luggage luggage to fly back to Sydney later that evening, let alone getting it past airport security. The truth is, upon visiting one of our poster walls in Fitzroy we noticed one of the central posters was falling off the wall and beyond repair. Dom is a man of action and took matters into his own hands. But sadly, today was not the day for a clean solution. We only made matters worse! Much worse. One of our White Horse Crew explained it to a tee: "Another quality Tron product". We'll just leave that there. C'est la vie. Sorry, Dom. But at least you got your trophy.

Overall, the street art portion of the 'Golden Bean Tour' has come to an end. If you're a Melburnian and you've made it this far through this article, well done. No love lost at all! We think there's room for two coffee capitals in this beautifully cafeinated country of ours. And if you're feeling special that we targetted you, take it as a compliment! But the truth is we ran the campain in Sydney, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide as well! You can go back to serving your beers in pots and pints, and drinking your 'Mont Blanc'. Giddy Up!

P.s. we actually love the 'Mont Blanc'. What a dilemma! Over and out.