From FARM to cup
Client: Jacobs Douwe Egberts
We believe in telling stories that matter. Last year, one of our projects took us from Western Uganda to a virtual reality installation in the Netherlands, bridging worlds through storytelling for Jacobs Douwe Egberts (JDE).
JDE is a subsidiary of JDE Peet’s, the world's leading pure-play coffee and tea company, headquartered in The Netherlands. Today, JDE unleashes the possibilities of coffee and tea in more than 100 countries, through a portfolio of over 50 brands including L’OR, Jacobs, Senseo, Tassimo, Douwe Egberts, OldTown, Super, Pickwick, and Moccona.
This is the story of: how we turned the story of coffee into an experience you can step inside.
Services: scouting, scripting, filming, VR, photography and editing.
1. Scouting in Rukungiri: Finding the Story
In October 2024, our team travelled to Rukungiri, Western Uganda, to begin scouting for JDE’s project. Scouting is an essential part of our process: talking to farmers, visiting locations, and shaping storylines so that when the cameras roll, the narrative flows naturally.
Among the many farmers we met, one woman’s story stood out. Her resilience and determination reflected the strength of many farming families across Uganda, and became the personal story at the heart of the project.
A Coffee Story, Anna Timukuratire
2. Bringing Coffee to Life: Film, Photography & VR
This wasn’t just a video project: we created an impact video, multiple photographs and a virtual reality (VR) experience, a first for Marula.
Setting up 360° cameras in the middle of farm work while “hiding” our crew was both challenging and fascinating. Step by step, we followed the journey of coffee.
From beans on the farm;
To local processing facilities in the field;
To Touton SA, the major export facility in Kampala that partners with farmers to improve quality and productivity;
All the way to Utrecht for customers to experience!
From Kampala, Uganda
Before the VR journey reached the Netherlands, we hosted a photo exhibition in Kampala to showcase the heart of the project and many others called, ‘Frames of Impact’.
To Utrecht, Netherlands
The final results came together in a full exhibition. In Utrecht, the VR installation and video exhibition allowed JDE employees and visitors to experience the story of coffee origins in an interactive and emotional way. Visitors could choose their own path: stepping inside the farmer’s home, standing in the processing bays, or walking through the farm fields.
Back to Uganda
Later, we had the privilege of hosting the Sustainability Manager for Africa of JDE in Uganda, guiding her through the coffee communities and filming her experience on the ground, completing the circle between origin and consumer.
Why It Matters
Projects like this highlight more than coffee. They highlight people. They connect farmers in Uganda to consumers and professionals in Europe. They show the human effort behind every cup, and they prove that impact storytelling and innovation can go hand in hand.
From seed to cup TRaining Video
Client: Jacobs Douwe Egberts, 2024
Services: scripting, filming, and editing.
Challenge
Jacobs Douwe Egberts wanted to solve a very specific issue: how to better bridge the disconnect between coffee production in origin countries and JDE staff around the world that process or work with coffee at an internal level.
Solution
To develop a video, titled “Seed to Cup”, showing the whole process of coffee production in Uganda from planting seeds, harvesting, drying, packaging, and exporting. Highlighting not only the coffee but also the people behind it - in this case, a family to represent different homesteads of different coffee growers and how they work together as a family.
Positive impact
Understanding how coffee is being produced in Uganda created a deeper connection for new recruits at JDE and made coffee training more efficient. The video was shared with all teams or business units within JDE.
