A French-Wisconsin Cafe Through Media
CLIENT
Base Camp Door County
LOCALITY
Sister Bay, Wisconsin
DATE
September 2017 - 2019
CATEGORY
Content
TYPE
Photography, Videography, Storytelling
MEDIUM
Digital
STATUS
Completed
One of the firm’s first projects was in modernizing a popular cafe in the heart of the Door Peninsula, a thriving tourist destination surrounded by nature. Through solidifying Base Camp’s brand elements, re-inventing its online footprint, and creating an abundance of content to show what Base Camp provides to the community. This project took a few years to complete with planned sessions to capture the honest and compelling narrative of a French-Wisconsin-inspired culinary experience that brings many together.
Base Camp Coffee Bar was established in 2005 as a “base camp” or home base for anyone exploring the Door Peninsula and seeking food from the best of both worlds. The owner is from the West coast of France and beautifully combined his love for Wisconsin and French cuisine. Base Camp Coffee Bar opened its doors to the community as an extension of Ecology Sports owned by Alicia and Joel Kersebet The lower level of our historic building became a community-centered social space with a French accent. Simple fares, vegetarian options, good coffees, teas and cocoas, and refreshing beverages in a warm and pleasant environment.
With lines consistently to the door during the summer, the owner wasn’t interested in having content to use as solely advertising but more to become a journal of what was happening in the cafe. Joel was seeking something more intimate, more personal, and that told the story of his passion for bringing people together. At the beginning of this project, there were no strong brand standards, the website was outdated and not accurately displaying the true essence of Base Camp, and he sought more content to better narrate the happenings within.
The first step of this process was creating a vector file of the existing Base Camp Logo so that it could be replicated and utilized across the cafe including digital content and merchandise in the store. After the logo was created some brand standards were established such as the color palette, typefaces, and voice of Base Camp. Bold, deep, and warm tones were selected to relate to the vast nature ready to be explored after lunch in the cafe and due to the interior design elements. Pure green is reminiscent of the lush greenery found in nature. Warth is added with brown which represents the earth from which their ingredients are rooted. Highlighting aspects of the cafe is a golden yellow which brings cheer and warmth like the summer sun. Together, the three colors create a sense of being grounded, true, and providing nutritious treats. The voice, or vibe, of the cafe, was to be open to all, a place of informal gathering, and a pleasant cafe to recharge in between daily adventures. All elements were then combined to create a refreshed version of the Base Camp Website. Next was determining how to capture the essence of Base Camp through images, video, and text.
Many restaurants show mainly images of their food and drinks; Joel wanted something beyond the traditional content that would relate more to those who seek the same. Instead of showing pictures and videos of food, the focus was instead shifted to people.
Photographs early on focused on the people behind the scenes preparing everything in the kitchen. Starting early in the morning, Joel was captured creating many of his signature menu items from start to completion. Incorporating the hands is a helpful tool to show scale, image context, and engage the viewer. Through these images, the customer gets an inside view into the preparation of their food that they don’t normally get to witness. This insight can increase credibility and help fill an information void to show a more authentic side of the business. With this, one may note that there are some messy counters and the icing isn’t perfect which strengthens the authenticity of showing it doesn’t have to be perfect as long as it tastes delicious.
Creating an environment for people to gather was at the heart of Base Camp’s mission. At the base of every brand are the people who interact with it each day; each interaction adds to the development of the brand and determines its likelihood to promote it to others. One of the beautiful aspects of the cafe was its ability to be the thread sewing together explorers from across the globe in one common locality. People from around the world would check in with Joel and his team on their adventures often sending postcards and pictures that were featured throughout the cafe. Due to this, it was imperative to bring more people into the content who help make Base Camp unique. This can be tricky as capturing people can be a complex process in capturing the right moments while having permission to share them. Because of this, many of the images of people enjoying the cafe are taken from afar, their backside, or focusing on the incredible employees.
Narratives are continuously developing from day-to-day interaction with customers which are shareable and may further shape a brand. As these interactions are shared by the customer, the brand is carried along to its audiences without spending more money.
While the owner wanted to have more interesting content than just food and drinks, being one of the main components of sales it was influential to add it to the content mix. These images were a bit more clean and sometimes even curated for specific promotions. With such an array of menu items, there were many images and videos captured to be utilized online and share cafe favorites such as Joel’s take on Kouign-amann, the Door County maple latte, and the Green-and-Gold breakfast burrito.
Throughout this project, ZFMK Creative provided hands-on social media management helping Base Camp with scheduling, writing posts, and build continuity across platforms. During this time period of working with the cafe, posts saw an increase in the number of likes by nearly 200 percent. Beyond likes, more interactions began taking place on posts and the account grew the number of followers.
While there are many ways to integrate storytelling into promoting and building a brand, this project was able to relate to the products and services sold with authenticity. Similar to each person’s experiences, not one business is alike. Content focused on four different areas which included: 1. behind the scenes (in the kitchen), 2. people interacting with the cafe, 3. food and beverages, and 4. reposting and sharing outdoor adventures, landscapes, and nature’s wonders. Apart each of the areas help relate to different customers while telling everyone online more about the business. Together the four areas combine to become a curated digital experience diary with a well-rounded sequence. With the leadership of Base Camp, we were able to focus on the people curating the food or enjoying it, the ingredients sourced locally, and the beauty of the many different patrons from around the globe.
