The Challenge
Starbucks is renowned for their seasonal menus, from the fan-favourite Pumpkin Spice range of beverages served up during Halloween to their jolly Christmas-themed offerings that delight coffee lovers everywhere.
In the Philippines, Starbucks maintains a loyal customer base who regularly order from the Starbucks menu within the Grab app. But as the pivotal Christmas season approached, Starbucks faced a challenge: how to drive sales and brand metrics, including ad recall and purchase intent, without resorting to promos?
The Solution
With Christmas on the horizon and holiday spirit palpable in the air throughout the Philippines, Starbucks worked with GrabAds to serve ads featuring their festive menu to users within delivery distance of their retail outlets. The campaign linked holiday spirit with the Starbucks seasonal menu to entice users to try the delicious treat without expecting promos.
Users saw bright, tempting visuals – featuring cakes and crepes as well as tall foamy beverages – throughout their in app journey: when they opened the app, while browsing and comparing food options, and while waiting for their meal-orders or rides to arrive. The month-long campaign served 7.69 million impressions to 2.5 million unique users with a healthy 1.75% click-through rate that delivered happy results.
Results
Understanding that impacting brand metrics was a key campaign objective for the Starbucks team, GrabAds commissioned a brand-lift study by Kantar to understand how the campaign performed against that goal.
And the results exceeded regional norms: the study found an uplift in ad recall of 11%, which is 2x higher than that of Kantar’s norm in Southeast Asia.
Additionally, the study measured a 4% uplift in purchase intent among new users. Among existing customers – users who had purchased Starbucks within the preceding 30 days – uplift in future purchase intent was even stronger, at +23%, proving that the GrabAds campaign helped cement customer loyalty.
The campaign delivered sales impact as well. For every dollar spent on the campaign, it delivered 11.83 dollars in sales, underscoring how great campaigns don’t just build brand or drive sales: they do both.
To learn how GrabAds can help marketers meet campaign objectives, drop us a note and our team will reach out to you.
