Starbucks and its new promoting company Anomaly, are making attention-grabbing 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 immediately,
out of the darkness,
power.
In line with Advertising and marketing Dive, Starbucks executives together with CEO Brian Niccol affirmed that advertising 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 mentioned had “room for enchancment.” To that finish, Starbucks is reallocating budgets from discounting to advertising.
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, in the course of the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the corporate made the choice to place the apply on maintain.
The “Keep Awhile” spot promotes free refills, a tactic that additionally seeks to spice up the time prospects spend within the shops.
Curiously, 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 conventional advertiser, and our advertising {dollars} have 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 alternative. We live in a society the place there’s a want for human connection and a way of group. And what we do on daily basis is convey individuals collectively.”
