Starbucks Games
Loyalty Program Member Engagement
Concept, design and marketing for multiple Starbucks Rewards games to drive member engagement, incremental business and a chance to win free Starbucks.
Role:
Creative Director
Responsibilities:
Creative direction for visuals and voice, game concept and mechanics, marketing assets, senior stakeholder management, agency selection/management and implementation planning
Growing engagement and incrementality can be hard for a daily ritual such as coffee, but that was exactly what was needed for Starbucks Rewards. I led the Creative Studio team, in partnership with the marketing team, to create a holiday-themed game (and sweepstakes) that gave members a chance to win free drinks and other treats. Starbucks For Life was born, helping to amplify the important holiday (December) season, drive new member acquisition and enhance customer behavior such as day part or new beverage trial.
The financial and customer success of Starbucks for Life led to the development of new iterations and other “collect-to-win” style games, including Bonus Star Bingo, Starbucks for Life: Summer Edition, The Starbucks Summer Game and Bonus Star Hopscotch. We partnered with talented vendors and agencies to help make these games a reality, each year adding fun new features, evolving the visual style and storytelling. The games eventually became tentpole engagements for the holiday and summer seasons, helping drive new beverage trial and driving incremental revenue for even non-members.
Outcomes:
• Incremental visits and purchases, as well as a longer-term ripple effect of member engagement and retention
• A bespoke game and sweepstakes platform that enabled up to four unique games a year for multiple multiple years
• Unique game identities that complimented online and in-store seasonal expressions
• Amplification of new and limited-time seasonal beverages
• Annual improvements to story-telling, game mechanics, design, illustration and marketing
Early collaboration with marketing, product, and IT, helped build a new program and its identity to be fun, functional and easy-to-understand. But the real success was in listening to the customers who provided all the answers we needed. The Starbucks Rewards identity shows up everywhere customers are, from the app to their cup.
The Team:
Starbucks Creative Studio, Starbucks Marketing, Starbucks Digital Product, POP, USTwo, Ogilvy.