2012 Gold Best use of email marketing Gold

Client Starbucks

How did the campaign make a difference? This campaign for My Starbucks Rewards needed to translate love for coffee into love for Starbucks. The ‘heart’ emails achieved incredible engagement: 42% opened the launch email and 73% clicked through. Subsequent ‘soul’ emails drove behaviour that was directly attributable them: e.g. 15% tried a new blend announced only by email.

What details of the strategy make this a winning entry? This year saw Starbucks replace its old Starbucks Card Rewards programme with the new My Starbucks Rewards. The relaunch was based on the insight that to drive brand preference in a convenience category, one must form a deeper emotional connection with customers. The Starbucks Card is pre-paid; once loaded you earn Stars on payments made with the card. It’s a convenient mechanic to encourage customers to seek out a cup of Starbucks, not simply a cup of coffee. But an emotional connection was needed to keep people topping up their card, while regular card use is critical to tracking customer behaviour. This programme has two streams of email activity. ‘Heart’ or programme management emails welcome you to the fold and keep you updated about your status, stars and rewards, reinforcing and rewarding regular behaviour. Then ‘soul’ emails inspire you to return for more Starbucks, more often, tempting you with new tastes and special offers, and delighting you with secret benefits. These emails seek to create new behaviours and drive incremental spend.

How did creativity bring the strategy to life? A new tone of voice, design and illustrative style, and email templates were created to complement new rewards and milestones. The heart of the programme features simple emails with copy that celebrates the personal connection between Starbucks and the people who sip it. The soul of the programme has tempted customers to try new blends like Blonde roast, plus a new Secret Menu idea, where cardholders can order new drinks before they’re even added to the menu. Plus, the sort of innovation people expect from Starbucks, like adding scan to pay to the mobile app so customers can pay by phone at the till point.

Results ‘Heart’ emails achieve open rates up to triple the DMA benchmark, while ‘soul’ emails have driven proven sales uplift, especially of new products announced only through email; for instance, an email announcing a new roast drove 15% in store to try it.

Team Jake Richards - Account Director, Ben Golik - Creative Director / Copywriter, Phil Charles - Project Manager, David Barrett - Copywriter, Alex Allen - Art Director, Pavel Fernandez - Designer, Dan Bort - Planning Director