As Starbucks Canada’s go-to agency for unique social media content, we’ve had the pleasure of crafting several different social media campaigns for them over the years. Along the way, we’ve produced everything from character animations and motion graphics to live action.
Starbucks
Education and Expertise
To help Starbucks cement their position as an authority in the cultivation, craft and community of coffee, we wrote and animated a series of educational vignettes for YouTube. These videos detailed the history and geography of coffee, and even offered how-tos on creating the perfect cuppa.
Live Action How-tos
This series of video vignettes designed for YouTube feature a live action barista detailing the proper way to make a perfect pour-over, french press, or latte. We storyboarded each vignette, then filmed them on location while directing a Starbucks barista.
Product Launches
From new coffees to new gift card designs and in-store merchandise, our promotional animations have helped Starbucks get the word out. Whether it’s the return of a favourite beverage or the announcement of a new in-store promotion, you can be sure we found a clever way to tell the story.
Seasonal Messaging
We’ve helped Starbucks celebrate everything from Valentines Day to hot summers to Christmas, crafting images and animations that surprise and delight. We’ve even created little interactive ‘games’ in the platform that take advantage of the pause and play functions.
For many Canadians, the annual appearance of Starbucks’ iconic red cups marks the start of winter and the Holiday season. Knowing this, Starbucks asked us to play up the debut of the red cups on Instagram and challenged us to “share joy” with their fans and followers.
We concluded that joy was “unexpected happiness” and set about spreading it.
Our seven-week social media campaign began with the “Dance of the Red Cups”, a series of light-hearted animations featuring a ballet of holiday beverages in a paper-craft winter scene, designed to add joy to people’s Instagram feeds.
We then produced a second series of animations that used consumers’ own Instagram images of red cups. People were thrilled to see their own photos featured in the official Starbucks Canada feed, resulting in a lot of mentions where people tagged friends.
150th Anniversary
To celebrate Canada’s 150th birthday, Starbucks Canada ran a nationwide social media campaign focused on our country’s future.
The campaign asked the public to write their wish for Canada’s future on a Starbucks cup, snap a photo, and share it on Instagram or Twitter. Then, for every wish shared, Starbucks donated $1 to a local youth charity.
The online campaign culminated in real-world events in five major cities across Canada. At each event, a local artist collaborated with youth to create an original artwork inspired by the wishes. We also set up interactive digital kiosks at each event to hype the initiative and highlight the numerous entries posted on social media.
To support this amazing campaign, we provided Starbucks with everything from branding and website development to social media management and on-site digital media.
For the 2013 holiday season, Starbucks Canada challenged us to “share joy” with their fans and followers. We concluded that joy was “unexpected happiness” and set about spreading it.
Our seven-week social media campaign blended light-hearted animations designed to add joy to people’s Instagram feeds.
For the third part of the campaign we reached out on Twitter to 350 Canadians who were having a bad day and responding with a personalized tweet and a $20 beverage card to brighten their day.
We encouraged recipients to “share joy” too, by using their card to buy a coffee for someone else. The responses, retweets and new followers had an exponential effect on exposure.
The campaign was a great success. We clearly associated Starbucks Canada with holiday joy, enhanced positive brand affinity, markedly increased consumer engagement and successfully grew Starbucks follower count on both targeted platforms.
We were always excited to see what A&S would bring when we briefed them in, which was typically only when we were absolutely stumped for something unique and effective.
Brand Manager, Starbucks Canada
Results
63,000+
Uses of #sharejoy in social media
9,860
Instagram images tagged #sharejoy
6%
Increase of @starbuckscanada Instagram followers
First
Use of Instagram video for Starbucks
First
Use of stop-motion animation on Instagram for a major brand in Canada
100,000
Supercharged followers 3 months ahead of their projected date for @starbuckscanada on Twitter
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