Let’s Merry MMA CASE STUDY Christmas

Campaign Summary

Rather than build its own app, partnered with popular apps to engage a much broader audience in . The “Let’s Merry Christmas” campaign cross-mobile integration campaign ran before Christmas, encouraging consumers in Shanghai, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang provinces to use the Jiepang app to check in at Starbucks and earn a virtual badge, and then share their experience on the Weico app to generate buzz. When 20,000 badges were passed out, Starbucks rewarded badge earners with a free beverage upgrade around the Christmas holiday.

Strategy and Execution

To expand Starbucks’ influence as a social brand in the mobile age, the company executed a mobile campaign to celebrate Christmas with young consumers in three Eastern China provinces. Starbucks partnered with two of the most popular social mobile apps in China: Jiepang, a location-based app similar to Foursquare, and Weico, a third-party social mobile app for China’s largest social network that is similar to TweetDeck for .

Jiepang delivered a solid base of more than three million young passionate users in China. Since its launch in 2010, it has partnered with more than 400 premium brands, including Louis Vuitton, Nike, The North Face, and H&M on different mobile campaigns.

Weico is tied to , the largest social network in China. While Sina Weibo’s official mobile app is more popular among the general public, Weico has attracted more than six million niche users who are more mobile-savvy and design-sensitive. The Weico partnership created an immersive branded mobile experience for users by offering a Starbucks branded downloadable “skin” that completely changed the outlook and feel of the app interface. The Let’s Merry campaign sought to create a rich and rewarding experience for people who shared authentic Starbucks moments with friends, thus generating social media buzz and foot traffic to the 200 Starbucks in Eastern China. It started with a mission calling for 20,000 consumers to check in using Jiepang. A month before Christmas, Jiepang users who checked in and shared about being at Starbucks earned a virtual Starbucks badge. When more than 20,000 badges were issued, those consumers received a free beverage upgrade simply by presenting the virtual badge to a Starbucks barista.

To maximize the results of the Jiepang campaign, a few innovative technologies were deployed:

An HTML5 mobile landing page, optimized for iPhone, was created. There, users found the rules to the Jiepang campaign, read the latest check-in messages, and learned about Starbucks’ new Christmas drinks. Moreover, consumers could check in on the landing page without launching the Jiepang app. The HTML5 mobile landing page was inserted on Weico and a selection of premium apps, including the business magazine Business Value and the calendar planner Days Matter, in order to reach more targeted mobile users.

Near Field Communication (NFC)-powered tags were installed in the elevator lobbies of 30 commercial buildings that were close to a Starbucks store. When consumers swiped an NFC-enabled smartphone over the NFC tag, a message popped up, showing them the quickest route to the nearest Starbucks. In addition, an outdoor LED screen was erected in the Raffles City Mall in Shanghai on the last day of the check-in mission. Jiepang conducted a live broadcast to count down the number of badges issued. In addition to the thousands of people who visited the mall that day, a group of journalists were invited to witness the countdown and report on the moment when the Starbucks free-upgrade reward was unlocked.

Results

More than 670,000 consumers participated in the “Let’s Merry” campaign, either by checking in, sharing branded messages on social networks, or downloading the Weico Starbucks skins. More than 60,000 Jiepang users checked in at different Starbucks stores, 40,000 more than goal. Of the 20,000 badges distributed, more than 800 were redeemed for a beverage upgrade. More than 400,000 Starbucks skins were downloaded from Weico. Starbucks earned 4.6 million brand exposures, as well as thousands of new fans for its official account on Sina Weibo.

Source

“Let’s Merry Christmas Campaign.” 2012 Smarties APAC Regional Winner Cross-Mobile Integration. Brand: Starbucks. Lead Agency: Guohe Ad.

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