Role: Creative direction

Building off learnings from the previous year’s sweepstakes game—Starbucks for Life—the client wanted this year’s game to be more engaging and socially shareable, while driving incremental store transactions and new membership. By making the game exclusive to My Starbucks Rewards members, customers felt special because they had an exclusive perk, and Starbucks was able to leverage the game for new member acquisition.

The responsive website experience centered around a “collect and win” game to help players feel like they were progressing and winning—even if they didn’t take home the grand prize of Starbucks for Life.

On the backend, the game was connected to customer transaction history, so members were rewarded with a game piece or an instant win Bonus Star for every purchase.

Prizes were won when 3 game pieces were collected in a single row on the digital game board. The game pieces were themed around characters that were relevant in pop-culture, holiday appropriate, and had a nod to Starbucks.

Leveraging research that loyalty members love collecting and sharing badges, players were encouraged to share each game piece (character gif) to show off their achievement, and entice their friends to—become a member and—play the game.

Digital marketing efforts targeted existing members and non-members through timely emails, banners, Starbucks.com hero placements, and in-store wifi login screen promotions.