Ritual Coffee: one pour, four ad formats
Nine seconds, one stream of coffee, no voice. This is the launch ad for the Ritual Coffee subscription: FIRST SIP, BEST SIP, twenty percent off the first order, and the cup at the end.
It began as one line in FoxyLab's chat, and four answers turned it into an ad. Then FoxyLab laid it out again for Reels, feeds, square posts and YouTube. Each size has its own layout, so the pour stays in the frame in all four.
Coffee by subscription, for people who buy beans online
Ritual Coffee sells coffee by subscription. Its launch ad has one viewer in mind: a person who already orders beans online and scrolls past a lot of coffee on the way to it. That person knows what a good cup looks like, so the ad does not explain coffee. It shows it.
The brand's tone is in three words from its kit: warm, direct, morning. The film keeps to them. It is warm in its light and its cream type, and direct in its four short lines. The morning is the cup itself: the first pour of the day, filmed close.
The film has one job: to tell that viewer about a new subscription and its offer, twenty percent off the first order, before the thumb moves on. The offer arrives in the middle of the film, on a red badge, so it is on screen long before the end card.
“The pour is the hero. Every format keeps the stream in frame and the offer in reach of a thumb.”
Nine seconds of one pour, in four lines of type
The ad has no voice: in the chat the brand chose “Type only”. Four short lines carry it, and each line arrives with a new stage of the same pour.
- 0–2 sFIRST SIP. The camera looks down into an empty white cup. The first thin stream of coffee falls into it. FIRST stands at the top in cream capitals, and SIP stands at the bottom right in italic.
- 2–4 sBEST SIP. The cup is half full now, with bubbles on the surface. The same two words return in dark type over the white cup, so the line reads as an answer to the first.
- 4–6.5 sThe offer. A second pour starts, and a red scalloped badge, −20%, lands above it with “on the first order” under it in cream italic.
- 6.5–9 sThe cup and the button. The full cup, with crema on top, sits under the Ritual Coffee name. A red “Order now” button and a small −20% badge end the film, so the offer and the ask are on screen together.
The stream of coffee is never cut out of the frame. It is the one picture that runs through all nine seconds, and the type moves around it.
One pour in four frames, and none of them a crop
The brief said “everywhere we post”, and the chat named all four places: Reels, feeds, square posts and YouTube. So the ad was made four times, and no size is a crop of another.
- 9:16 for Reels and Stories: FIRST at the top, SIP low on the right, the badge large above the pour.
- 4:5 for the Instagram and Facebook feed: the same four lines in the same order, in a shorter frame.
- 1:1 for square posts: the headline sits above the cup, not across it.
- 16:9 for YouTube and a site: the cup moves to the right, and the words and the button stand on the left.
The critic's check, before the render, was the same for all four: the offer reads in 0.8 seconds in every format. Our guide One video, every feed explains which of these sizes each platform shows.
Espresso, offer red and warm white
The palette comes from the brand kit and has three colours. Dark brown, #1A1412, is the ground behind the cup and the colour of the coffee. Red, #FF2A1F, is kept for the offer alone: the −20% badge and the button. Warm white, #F4EDE4, is the type and the cup.
The words are set in a heavy serif. FIRST and BEST stand upright, and SIP leans in italic, which gives the line some movement. The name sits in two lines, “Ritual” in italic over “Coffee”. Only the button uses a plain sans, so it reads as a button and not as part of the headline.
The motion is the footage itself: a slow, close pour into a white cup. The type changes with each stage of the pour, from an empty cup to a full one.
Fourteen minutes, one line and two notes
The brand wrote one line: “A launch ad for our coffee subscription, everywhere we post.” FoxyLab asked four questions, and the brand chose an ad, all four places, “Order” as the action, and type only. The brief card read: launch ad, 9:16, 4:5, 1:1 and 16:9, for people who buy beans online. Our post The one-line brief shows why one line is enough for a first cut.
After the first cut the brand gave two notes. “Make the discount bigger” made the badge grow from 16 to 20 percent of the frame. “Button: order now” gave the button its new words. Each note changed one thing, and the rest of the ad stayed as it was.
Short notes like these name the change and leave the rest alone. Our post Notes, not knobs shows how to write them.
The film critic checked two things before the render. The offer had to read in 0.8 seconds in every format. In 1:1 the headline had to sit above the cup, not across it. The finished ad took fourteen minutes, and it was delivered as MP4, MOV, WebM and GIF.
What viewers ask about the Ritual Coffee ad
What does the Ritual Coffee ad sell?
A coffee subscription, at its launch. The ad offers twenty percent off the first order, and its end card asks viewers to order now.
How long is the ad, and why does it have no voice?
It is nine seconds long. The brand chose “Type only” in the chat, so four short lines of type tell the whole ad, and it works with the sound off.
Are the four sizes crops of one video?
No. The ad was laid out four times, in 9:16, 4:5, 1:1 and 16:9. In each one the stream of coffee stays in the frame and the offer reads in 0.8 seconds. In the square cut the headline moved above the cup.
What changed after the first cut?
Two notes. The badge grew from 16 to 20 percent of the frame, and the button got the words “Order now”.
How was the ad made?
From one line in FoxyLab's chat and four answers: an ad, for Reels, feeds, square posts and YouTube, with “Order” as the action and type only. It took fourteen minutes.
