Win at EspressoStarbucks UK

SUMMARY• Starbucks made the decision to change its core product offering in order to help

differentiate themselves from a highly crowded market, and to address its position as the authority in coffee in the UK. Edelman was tasked with creating a 360 PR campaign that included social media as a critical factor in organically spreading word of mouth about the launch of the new stronger, British Latte– Edelman has conducted continual blogger and Twitter outreach for Starbucks, but this

campaign required additional targets. The team used TweetLevel to identify who we should engage with and to understand what people were talking about in terms of espresso and coffee strength

– Edelman ensured that original content was part of all aspects of the campaign to capture the moment of change and amplify it through both traditional and online channels

– Content for social media included a celebrity ‘barista training’ video (utilising Starbucks superfan Jimmy Carr), Facebook photo booths in store and bespoke Twitter hashtags

  THE CHALLENGE• Edelman’s challenges were to engage with existing customers and social media users

whilst simultaneously creating interest amongst potential new targets. It was crucial for customers and media to engage with the brand, aiding conversation (both on and offline) around the campaign, including understanding of the wider business vision

• Drive conversation around the Starbucks Latte in the run up to, and launch of the new, stronger British Latte

• Emphasise the personal in-store experience with the introduction of baristas writing names on cups

• Differential two messages of espresso strength and customer service to our social media targets in an easy to understand manner

  EXPLORE• TweetLevel was used to establish who should be targeted by:

– Ensuring we targeted relevant individuals who would be interested in Starbucks– Analysing their influence within the coffee community and the communities they

were part of– Monitoring sentiment towards Starbucks to avoid negative commentary

• The team also used TweetLevel to take a temperature check of the online community the week before the changes were due to be made, particularly those who were talking about Starbucks, to establish volume of conversation which mentioned the Starbucks Latte, including the tone of this conversation

 

MEASURING SUCCESS

Volume of conversation around Starbucks Latte

increase x15 during campaign

Amongst online consumers, conversation around “Latte” in the UK

changed dramatically during the campaign, with

Starbucks now being mentioned in conjunction

with Latte

Before

After

Win at EspressoStarbucks UK

STRATEGIZE• The team used TweetLevel to find out that many key influencers were already positive

about Starbucks as a brand, but were not talking about the Latte or espresso, widening the list of people that Starbucks talk to. Using the Premium feature, we were able to filter these results to only show bloggers from the UK

• As part of our campaign, key bloggers were invited to an Espresso Masterclass event, offering them the chance to learn how to make the new Latte. This event and materials created helped our targets understand the changes being made by Starbucks. TweetLevel helped us create the invite list for this event

• The team knew that utilising Jimmy Carr’s celebrity status and additional pool of followers through social media would be integral to meeting the main objective of increasing conversation around the Starbucks Latte. As such, Edelman secured social media mentions within his contract

• To capture the moment of change in store across the country, Edelman also planned Facebook photo booths in selected stores inviting consumers to upload photos of themselves with their new drink directly to Facebook and share with friends

• The team worked closely with the wider business strategy of promoting the free Latte offering on the 14th March, incorporating the hashtag #FreeStarbucks into social media materials

• Edelman understood the importance of constantly monitoring online conversation, and so the team took daily temperature checks during the campaign

• All of this content was created to give our targets collateral to talk and write about the new Starbucks Latte, and spread the word throughout the community

ACTIVATE• After identifying our targets, the team tiered the list, filtering which ones would be

invited to the Masterclass and who would receive the video content from Jimmy Carr• For avid Tweeters, we created the hashtag #sbuxbritishlatte to allow them to contribute

to the conversation easily. We also provided easy to upload content (video, text, images) to allow posts to be uploaded easily

• Jimmy Carr’s barista training video was Tweeted by Jimmy Carr himself to his 2 million followers. This led to increased word of mouth amongst a new set of consumers

• Alongside this, the team also secured a mention of the promoted Twitter hashtag #FreeStarbucks by Jimmy Carr as well as bloggers we outreached to

IDENTIFYING INFLUENCERS

Using ‘premium’ TweetLevel, the team searched the entire

database for UK based, top relevant influencers

Facebook booths were used to capture the

moment of change in stores across the UK

EVALUATE• Throughout the campaign, particularly centred on the 14th March, the team used

TweetLevel to monitor conversation levels• The team saw early peaks of conversation following the Masterclass event• This was followed by the main peak in conversation on 14th March, which primarily

focused on Jimmy Carr and the sharing of the video content, hosted on YouTube. After Jimmy Carr Tweeted the link, an uplift in views from 7,000 to 39,000 was seen

• The hashtag #FreeStarbucks was the second most Tweeted topic in the UK• The Facebook booths activity helped increase the number of ‘Likes’ of the Starbucks

page by 265%, with 580 customers uploading photos to the Starbucks UK page• Our monitoring allowed the team to respond to any negative commentary, should the

need arise, as well as highlight the main advocates for Starbucks Latte in this social media space

• Laura Dalgleish, client lead at Starbucks, said “Edelman’s social media strategy for our Win at Espresso activity was integral to the success of the campaign. Above all, it was our aim to increase buzz around the changes being made to the product, and the reasons behind it, so that consumers understood the wider business strategy. Through Twitter, blog and Facebook outreach, we definitely achieved this, and even increased our fan base in the online community”

Win at EspressoStarbucks UK

The ‘celebrity barista training’ video proved to

be hugely successful within social media, being shared amongst existing

and new Starbucks communities