Starbucks is a morning essential, but not necessarily an afternoon destination. In order to drive more afternoon visits, Starbucks created a new Happy Hour program offering personalized deals on Starbucks beverages from 3-5pm. Our challenge was to create a paid social campaign that would drive both awareness of and participation in the Happy Hour program. We were measured by engagement with the ad and clicks through to the Happy Hour microsite.
Loved by millions, the iconic Starbucks cup has been at the center of the Starbucks social conversation for years. And since the beverages served in this cup are at the heart of the Happy Hour offering, we made them the hero of our social campaign, bringing the wildly delightful energy of Happy Hour to social feeds in an irresistible way.
Our series of short vignettes featured Starbucks beverages in a festive Happy Hour environment enticing our audience with the promise of afternoon goodness with delicious deals on their favorite beverages. Each one provides a glimpse into the magical afternoon that awaits at a nearby Starbucks store, showing our audience just how delightful their day can become with Starbucks Happy Hour.
All sets were handcrafted to reinforce the quality craftsmanship of Starbucks beverages, and everything was shot in camera to feel more human and social in nature. We used stop motion and gif animation to bring the vignettes to life and make them feel like popular, shareable social content rather than ad-like objects. The social-first mini masterpieces were coupled with emotive acquisition messaging to encourage fans to join the Happy Hour program. The campaign ran as dark posts across social channels, targeting those with an affinity for Starbucks. Each ad had a strong call to action and button to entice viewers to click through. 8 unique pieces of content were created in all.
We exceeded all engagement and acquisition benchmarks, most impressively crushing our cost per acquisition goal by 33%. Total number of new Happy Hour members is confidential.
