Costa Coffee MY and Gamuda Land jump on monolith hype

The odd phenomenon of a metal monolith appearing and disappearing across various locations worldwide seems to have puzzled most humans. According to multiple media reports including the BBC, it was seen in Utah last month before turning up in Britain just two days ago. This latest curious case of the disappearing monolith has caught the eyes of Costa Coffee Malaysia and Gamuda Land, who put an interesting twist to the phenomenon.

In a Facebook post, Costa Coffee said a coffee-brewing monolith first emerged in 2017 and has since appeared in over 300 locations across Malaysia. Along with the post was a picture featuring a self-serve machine in what seems to be the middle of a desert, similar to where the monolith was spotted in Utah. 

Costa Express Malaysia's marketing manager Lim Ju Lee told A+M that the team spotted the trend over the weekend and thought of the idea within a day. She added that the mysterious monolith reminded the team of its very own Costa red "monolith", the Costa Express self-serve machine. According to Lim, the Costa Express made its appearance three years ago in Klang Valley and has since expanded to 300 locations in Malaysia.

"We found this association interesting as it resonates with how Costa has grown over the years, which is a great story for Costa lovers out there alongside this trending news," she said.

Lim explained that the team is always on the lookout to engage with Malaysians beyond product centric communications. This is even more relevant in recent times when most Malaysians are based at home and are spending more time communicating via social media.

"Trend jacking posts like these are interesting, and when done appropriately, sets Costa on an international level as a platform that is in the know. It also helps to project our brand personality as one that is passionate about great coffee, innovative and playful," she said. 

According to Lim, it is extremely important for the team to build brand love by continuing to play a role in engaging its consumers and supporting Malaysian through this pandemic. Moving forward, Costa Coffee plans to embark on more social media engagements to delight its consumers.

Meanwhile, Gamuda Land approached the monolith in the form of a piece of breaking news. "Monoliths come and go but our townships stand the test of time," it said, along with a picture that read "Monolith spotted at Illaria". Gamuda Land's GM, corporate branding and communications, Yuen Chee Meng, told A+M that the team has been closely monitoring trends across the world, and the monolith has been trending in some interesting and symbolic places worldwide, gaining good traction.

"We found this relevant to us, as a town-maker, we have many points of interest within our townships that are equally interesting and scenic. Recently, we have taken a new direction in our content development focusing on content that are audience-centred," he added.

Yuen said that with audience-centred content, Gamuda Land has seen higher brand engagements and awareness, and hopes to create positive brand affinity with its online community over time. The post was done in collaboration with Digital Symphony.

The mysterious phenomenon also saw global brands trendjacking it, including Burger King and McDonald's. On 1 December, Burger King created it's own monolith by stacking a series of chicken patties on top of one another with the desert as the background and said: "Who did this" on Twitter. 

https://twitter.com/BurgerKing/status/1333526437295493121

https://twitter.com/BurgerKing/status/1333541721397923849

Some consumers were tickled and said Burger King's monolith will definitely disappear faster than the metal one. Shortly after on the same day, it posted a picture of the same background but without the "monolith" and said: "Ok, this is getting out of hand."

Meanwhile, McDonald's replaced the metal monolith with something similar looking - it's own drive-thru ordering system. "Welcome to McDonald's, what can I get you?" The Twitter post said. It garnered 9.5k retweets, 2k quotes and 104.5k likes.

https://twitter.com/McDonalds/status/1333828686584324096

This led to OREO Cookie responding with a photoshopped image of the OREO McFlurry next to the ordering system saying: "We'll take one OREO McFlurry please!". At the same time, American auto racing team Chip Ganassi Racing photoshopped on of its cars in front of the ordering system and said: "Uh yes hi, think i took a wrong turn somewhere but can i get a quarter pounder with cheese meal."

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