Starbucks Earth Day 2021
From a marketing team used to selling pretty drinks, we needed to tell a more urgent story.
It's easy to rack up engagements and clicks on a perfectly styled Frappuccino, or a cozy winter fireside coffee. But when confronted with how to share the advanced programs Starbucks has built to decrease its impact on the planet, the brand team turned to us to help.
My role on this project was not only to help the team narrow down which stories to tell, but how. We had to reinvent the interal Starbucks team's way of thinking about content production, especially when shooting during COVID-19. For this campaign, I was responsible for concepting, scripting, post copy, and voice artist direction.
There were two main stories to tell.
The first was that Starbucks partnering with farms across the world to plant 100M new coffee trees, which had been specially grown to resist emerging diseases.
@starbucks Here's how we're helping coffee farmers face the challenges of climate change. #Starbucks #Coffee #Sustainability
♬ original sound - Starbucks
The second story shared a peek at an all-new cup sharing program.
Although the experiment was exciting and felt like a major step forward for the brand, we needed to remind our audience that it was a tiny program in a few Seattle stores — not rolling out any time soon.
@starbucks Psst, we’re testing a new idea to reduce cup waste 👀#Starbucks #Sustainability
♬ original sound - Starbucks
Once we created these two narratives, we were able to put them together in one unified hero video.
This was a major paid media asset for the brand, in addition to living in the app and on its shareholder messaging.
And we even got the Chief Sustainability Officer in on the fun!
In the style of Mean Tweets, we were able to create a direct connection between a Starbucks changemaker and our audience of Gen Z on Tiktok.
@starbucks You asked us about sustainability, our Chief Sustainability Officer, Michael Kobori, responds to your questions. ♻️ #Starbucks #Sustainability
♬ original sound - Starbucks
Overall the campaign was a huge success, internally and externally.
Not only did our posts receive above average engagement (with one of our TikToks being the #1 most-viewed of all time on the Starbucks handle) but we helped the internal brand team at Starbucks create a working model for major brand campaigns moving forward — an especially important task in the lead up to the brand's 50th anniversary later in the year.