A challenge many retail marketers face is connecting digital to in-store. As the ready-to-drink coffee category becomes increasingly competitive with new branded and private label entrants, Starbucks challenged Theory House with translating affinity for the brand from the café to the aisle. The result? A seasonal Valentine’s campaign and sweepstakes inviting shoppers to take to Instagram and “share your Starbucks love” to drive trial and stimulate sales of ready-to-drink Frappuccino and Latte products.
Awareness for the campaign was generated by a digital and mobile ad campaign and shoppers were engaged in-store by pallets and shippers that highlighted the variety of Starbucks ready-to-drink flavors and sweepstakes details. In order to enter, participants posted a photo of themselves enjoying a Starbucks ready-to-drink beverage and tagged #xoxoStarbucks and #sweepstakes. The promotional prize pool included a grand prize trip to Starbucks’ Seattle Roastery.
Sweepstakes participation increased throughout the promotion, primarily driven by mobile entries. Overall results bested previous promotional benchmarks for Starbucks, while more importantly delivering record levels of category merchandising placements leading to incremental sales increases during this slower selling period.
So, while competitors may continue to challenge Starbucks at retail, our work successfully helped drive the brand’s continuing efforts to increase share as the category leader at retail and remain the preferred RTD choice for consumers.
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