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 out of the blue,
out of the darkness,
vitality.
In keeping with Advertising and marketing 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% 12 months over 12 months in Q1 fiscal 12 months 2025, outcomes that Niccol stated had “room for enchancment.” To that finish, Starbucks is reallocating budgets from discounting to advertising and marketing.
The “Not My Title” 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 stated.
For years, the corporate’s baristas wrote buyer orders and names on particular person cups. In 2020, in the course of the peak 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 clients spend within the shops.
Apparently, Starbucks’ former CEO, Howard Schultz, didn’t like spending cash on promoting. In a 2010 interview with Harvard Enterprise Evaluation, he stated, “We by no means had been a conventional advertiser, and our advertising and marketing {dollars} had been sometimes 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’d 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 every single day is convey folks collectively.”
