Role: Creative Direction and Design

During the holidays, Starbucks sees a dip in foot traffic because customers have a change in their routine. In order to drive sales and stay top-of-mind during the busy shopping season, Starbucks wanted to focus on its most loyal customers with an exclusive holiday email campaign.

Loyalty members received Bonus Stars offers for 12 consecutive days during December. Members were asked to opt-in to get an email everyday, for 12 days. Those members who didn’t opt-in were sent an email every 4 days, highlighting upcoming offers.

Since retailers increase their email sends during the holiday season, we needed a way to break through the inbox clutter. We created subject lines that teased up the product, but got to the heart of what members really wanted–Bonus Stars! Research showed that members highly identify with the visual of the star, so we used a star icon in place of the word “star” to get more attention in customer’s inbox.

To personalize the experience and increase the chance of redemption, members received offers for products based on their previous purchase habits and segmentation category.

Results:

• Sent to 9 million members with an open rate of 75%
• Starbucks saw an increase in YOY sales and email offer redemptions
• Most successful email campaign to that point, and set the bar for future campaign structure and goals.