ARCHIVEDouwe Egberts Coffee Click Reimagines Coffee Packaging for Russia
How Douwe Egberts Brought CMYK Logic to Coffee Cartridges in Russia Douwe Egberts' Coffee Click is...
Ice Break Brings Paul to Life in a 2011 Ambient Campaign
Ice Break's 'Paul' is an Iabaustralia.clapboard.com/blog/branding-and-advertising/12-advertising-creative-formats">ambient advertising campaign created by The Monkeys and published in Australia in December 2011, positioning the ready-to-drink iced coffee brand within the texture of everyday Australian life through a single, relatable character rather than conventional product demonstration.
The campaign presents Paul as a recognisable figure — the kind of person who populates Australian workplaces, construction sites, and suburban routines — using contextual brand placement and associated user imagery to communicate belonging rather than aspiration. Where many non-alcoholic drinks campaigns in Australia at this time leaned on energy, performance, or refreshment cues, 'Paul' leans into lifestyle authenticity. Ice Break is shown as a natural fixture in an ordinary man's day, not a product he reaches for but a product that is simply part of who he is. The campaign comprises a single media asset, executed in the ambient format — a choice that signals intent to meet the audience in physical space rather than in a broadcast or digital environment.
The Monkeys, the Sydney-founded independent agency co-founded by Justin Drape and Scott Nowell, brought to 'Paul' the same instinct for culturally grounded, characterful work that would define the agency's reputation across Australian advertising through the 2010s. In the Australian market, where RTD coffee had established a loyal but regionally concentrated consumer base, rooting a brand character in the specificity of local life carried genuine strategic logic. The campaign earned a Clapboard Score of 64 out of 100, reflecting a broadly positive archive assessment with moderate overall distinction — a score consistent with work that executes its concept cleanly without reaching for transformation of the category.
Ice Break occupied a competitive position inside Australia's ready-to-drink iced coffee and coffee-flavoured milk category at a time when the segment was still finding its footing as a mass-market proposition, according to S3-Prod Adage. According to research compiled by Clapboard, new RTD coffee launches in Australia increased almost seven-fold between September 2012 and August 2017, a trajectory that suggests the period immediately surrounding the 'Paul' campaign was one of early category momentum rather than saturation, according to Little Black Book. Iced coffee was described at the time as a small share of Australia's broader packaged-coffee market, according to Clapboard's editorial research, meaning brand differentiation in 2011 depended less on functional comparison and more on cultural ownership of a feeling or a type of person, according to Chiefmarketer.
Against that backdrop, the decision to build 'Paul' around associated user imagery — communicating who drinks Ice Break rather than what Ice Break does — reflects a sound reading of where value accrues in a growing, undifferentiated segment. Competitors such as Dare Iced Coffee and Farmers Union Iced Coffee each held strong regional loyalties across the Australian market, with Farmers Union in particular commanding deep affinity in South Australia, according to widely reported trade commentary. Ice Break's ambient approach with 'Paul' sidesteps direct product comparison entirely, instead staking a claim on a broader demographic archetype: the unpretentious, physically active, working Australian male.
The Monkeys, under the creative leadership of Justin Drape and Scott Nowell, had developed a body of work for Ice Break that consistently returned to the brand's 'adds a motor to your day' territory, as documented by Clapboard and reported by LBBonline, according to LinkedIn. 'Paul' extends that positioning into character rather than stunt, trading kineticism for recognition.
The Monkeys chose ambient media as the sole format for 'Paul,' a decision that shapes every dimension of the creative execution. Ambient advertising in the Australian market places brand communication inside the environments consumers already occupy — sites of work, transit, leisure, and routine — rather than interrupting them across broadcast or digital channels. For a campaign built around the conviction that Ice Break belongs in everyday Australian life, ambient is not merely a tactical choice but an argument about authenticity made through form.
The single media asset at the centre of 'Paul' uses contextual placement and lifestyle framing to render the character and the brand mutually reinforcing. Paul exists in the kind of setting an Ice Break drinker would recognise without instruction — the visual language is observational rather than constructed, producing the effect of documentation rather than advertisement. This approach aligns with the broader creative philosophy The Monkeys, co-founded by Justin Drape and Scott Nowell, brought to brand-building work in Australia during this period: find the truth in how people actually live, then place the brand inside that truth without forcing it.
Production credits for the 'Paul' campaign are not publicly documented in trade press or award body records accessible at time of writing. What the archive record confirms, per Clapboard, is that the campaign was submitted as a single-asset ambient execution, consistent with a focused, precise deployment rather than an integrated multi-touchpoint rollout. The restraint of a one-asset campaign in ambient media demands that the creative idea carry full weight without support from complementary formats — a structural discipline that the 'Paul' concept, grounded in character specificity, is built to sustain.
No verified performance data for the 'Paul' campaign is publicly available. No sales lift, market-share movement, or brand-tracking metrics have been reported in trade press or award body submissions accessible to Clapboard's research. The campaign does not appear in verified winner lists across major award bodies including Cannes Lions, the Effies, One Show, D&AD, Clio Awards, the Webby Awards, or WARC, as confirmed by Clapboard's editorial research. A separate Ice Break campaign — the 'Add a Motor to It' execution involving the World's Fastest Couch Stunt — placed third in Australia's Creative Showcase 6.3 in 2011, as documented by Clapboard, but this is a distinct piece of work and its recognition does not transfer to 'Paul.'
Assessed on structural grounds, 'Paul' demonstrates coherent strategic-creative alignment. The choice of ambient media to carry a character-based lifestyle argument for a brand competing in an underdifferentiated Australian RTD coffee category is logical and efficiently executed. The campaign does not attempt to do more than its single asset can support, and the concept — a recognisable Australian everyman as brand proxy — is durable enough to have informed the more elaborate, stunt-led Ice Break work that followed through 2012 and 2013, as reported by LBBonline and Clapboard.
The Clapboard Score of 64 out of 100 positions 'Paul' as competent, culturally grounded work with a clearly defined creative point of view, evaluated without the amplification that formal recognition or documented business results would provide.
Ice Break's 'Paul' is an ambient advertising campaign created by The Monkeys and published in Australia in December 2011. It positions the ready-to-drink iced coffee brand through a single relatable Australian character using lifestyle imagery and contextual placement rather than conventional product demonstration, comprising one media asset in total.
The Monkeys created the 'Paul' campaign for Ice Break. The Sydney-based independent agency, co-founded by Justin Drape and Scott Nowell, produced the ambient execution as part of a broader body of work for the Ice Break brand in Australia across the early 2010s, including the separate 'Add a Motor to It' campaign that same year.
No awards have been verified for the 'Paul' campaign. Clapboard's research confirms it does not appear in winner records for Cannes Lions, Effies, One Show, D&AD, Clio Awards, or Webby Awards. A separate Ice Break campaign placed third in Australia's Creative Showcase 6.3 in 2011, but that is a distinct piece of work.
The Monkeys built 'Paul' around associated user imagery, communicating who drinks Ice Break rather than what the product delivers. In Australia's early-stage RTD coffee category, this lifestyle-first approach staked a claim on a relatable working-Australian archetype, avoiding direct product comparison with competitors such as Dare Iced Coffee and Farmers Union Iced Coffee.
The Ice Break 'Paul' campaign received a Clapboard Score of 64 out of 100. The archive assessment is broadly positive but moderate, reflecting clean concept execution and cultural grounding within everyday Australian life, without the additional weight that formal award recognition or documented business effectiveness results would contribute to the score.
The Monkeys created several Ice Break campaigns in Australia around 2011 to 2013, including the 'World's Fastest Couch Stunt' and a billboard drag race at Sydney Motorsport Park, as documented by Clapboard and reported by LBBonline. 'Paul' sits within this body of work as the character-led, ambient expression of the brand's everyday-energy positioning.
.webp)
Creative Collaboration Platform: The Backbone of Modern Creative WorkWhat is a creative collaboration platform?Clapboard defines a creative collaboration platform as the operational core for today’s distributed creative teams. This is not a collection of digital collaboration tools stitched together; Clapboard’s system
Understanding the Creative Production MarketplaceWhat is a Creative Production Marketplace?Clapboard defines a creative production marketplace as a structured ecosystem where brands, agencies, and production talent converge to execute video, advertising, and branded content at scale. Unlike the legacy agency or freelanREAD FULL ARTICLE
The Urgent Need for a Creative Production Operating SystemWhy Traditional Creative Production Models Break DownClapboard sees the creative production landscape shifting under pressure. Content velocity is no longer a buzzword—it’s a mandate. Modern advertising demands relentless output across dozens of channels, each wREAD FULL ARTICLE
