Starbucks and its new promoting company Anomaly, are making fascinating new product- and café-focused commercials. The cinematic spots function soundtracks by AC/DC, The Ting Ting, and Willie Nelson. And good copy.
It begins in darkness.
In numerous neighborhoods earlier than dawn.
After which abruptly,
out of the darkness,
vitality.
In line with Advertising Dive, Starbucks executives together with CEO Brian Niccol affirmed that advertising and marketing investments are a big a part of the chain’s turnaround plan.
Starbucks noticed U.S. comparable retailer gross sales drop 4% yr over yr in Q1 fiscal yr 2025, outcomes that Niccol mentioned had “room for enchancment.” To that finish, Starbucks is reallocating budgets from discounting to advertising and marketing.
The “Not My Identify” spot factors to the truth that Starbucks baristas are returning to a time-honored custom. “We’re monitoring down the Sharpies and we’re going to get again to writing little notes on the cups,” Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol mentioned.
For years, the corporate’s baristas wrote buyer orders and names on particular person cups. In 2020, throughout the top of the COVID-19 pandemic, the corporate made the choice to place the observe on maintain.
The “Keep Awhile” spot promotes free refills, a tactic that additionally seeks to spice up the time prospects spend within the shops.
Apparently, Starbucks’ former CEO, Howard Schultz, didn’t like spending cash on promoting. In a 2010 interview with Harvard Enterprise Assessment, he mentioned, “We by no means have been a standard advertiser, and our advertising and marketing {dollars} have been usually spent within the retailer as a result of our baristas and phrase of mouth constructed that model.”
In the identical interview, he disputes that the relevancy of a Starbucks retail retailer or café doesn’t have endurance. “I might say the other. We live in a society the place there’s a want for human connection and a way of neighborhood. And what we do each day is convey folks collectively.”
