Cilantro launches a seasonal campaign every quarter across a hundred-and-twenty Egyptian outlets. The autumn 2024 menu — pumpkin spice, fig and honey latte, cardamom apple croissant — needed a campaign image system that felt warmer and more handmade than the brand's usual studio look.
Imagery had to drive paid social, in-store posters in 1.2x1.8m format, app banners, takeaway sleeves, and a thirty-second video composite cut from stills. We were asked to shoot six hero items and twelve supporting moments.
The most demanding constraint was color. Cilantro's in-store lighting is warm fluorescent, so the campaign images had to look right under that light when printed at A0 — a notoriously unfriendly handoff.
We shot in a north-facing studio over four days. Each hero drink and pastry was photographed with a hard backlight raked through a half-grid, giving the steam, sugar dust and butter sheen a directional life that survives reproduction at scale.
We pulled the color palette toward parchment, fig and oxblood — a deliberate departure from Cilantro's normally neutral grounds. Props came from a small Cairo ceramicist; nothing in the campaign uses branded crockery.
Final images were graded and proofed against an in-store fluorescent reference — every hero was tested in the actual lighting of the brand's flagship Zamalek outlet before sign-off.
Project closes
Cilantro Café
Seasonal Menu Campaign, 2024
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