Starbucks

The Objective

Who doesn’t know Starbucks? One of the world’s most loved coffee houses, the brand wanted to show customers how easy it was to order a bespoke drink – and then go further than that, becoming a regular part of its fans’ lives and the conversations already happening.

The Solution

To capitalise on an already existing trend and then own it, Starbucks used Spark Ads in tandem with offline activity to create a viral moment in and out of its stores. Recognising that the community was already talking about creating its own bespoke Starbucks drinks, the coffee house went a step further and launched two limited edition beverages ‘inspired by TikTok’ on the regular menu for two weeks. It then used Spark Ads to promote two popular Creator videos showing the drinks and building hype around them; a Strawberry Sunset flavoured iced tea and a Churro Frappuccino® Blended Beverage, both looking equally delicious.

Spark Ads boost organic videos as either an In-Feed or TopView Ad, bringing true authenticity to the feed for brands whilst retaining TikTok Ads Manager’s precision, algorithm-based targeting. Users can follow the creator or brand directly by tapping the “+” button or swipe left to view their profile. And a CTA button drives users to an external landing page to explore more. Starbucks ran its ads at auction and also on a Reach & Frequency objective, so not to saturate users’ feeds.

The Results

The campaign certainly drove buzz and excitement – the organic impact was huge, packing on an extra 31,500 new followers to Starbucks’ brand profile. The ads also generated a whopping 11.5 million impressions and over 220,000 likes, showing how much the community enjoyed engaging with this campaign.