Leveraging Election Day
Election Day is one of the most congested days for marketers. Every four years the typical news cycle come to a halt and for weeks all media is focused on the presidential elections. Not to mention all of the advertising for senators, state representatives, and of course the presidential race – I am sick of it and I don’t even live in a swing state! To even attempt to stand out in the election “clutter” is a monumental feat and the stars must align – or at least all the components of a great campaign must align. This year Starbucks did just that.
I just did a quick search on Twitter and within the past 5 minutes there were more than 45 tweets about the free coffee offer from Starbucks – People who just got their coffee, others spreading the word. There is no mention of the free coffee on the Starbucks Web site, but with the help of a primetime ad during SNL, Starbucks was able to launch the perfect viral campaign. I got an email from a friend about free coffee that I, in turn, forwarded to the 360PR office and so on. Starbucks also posted a video on YouTube on November 1st. It has already received nearly 315,000 views and counting. 229,998 people confirmed on Facebook that they would attend the “event” “Free Cup Free Cup of Starbucks Coffee if you Vote on Tuesday.” And now nearly 500 news articles pop up about the campaign when doing a Google News search on the term “Starbucks.”
There was a slight bump in the road – according to Newsweek, it is apparently illegal to offer monetary incentives to get people to the polls, but I would say that this is a true case of “there is no such thing as bad PR.” Now everyone gets a free cup of coffee.
I voted, got my sticker and am off for an afternoon cup of coffee.
I agree – this was a brilliant campaign and well executed. I was traveling yesterday and was pleasantly suprised when the Continental Airlines Club Room at Newark offered free drinks – even alcoholic! – to everyone in celebration/honor of Election Day. That’s one question I voted ‘yes’ to!
Loved this campaign Caroline! I for one collected my free Starbuck’s (and paid for one of those “low-fat” breakfast sandwiches) after voting. Ben & Jerry’s is another brand that inserted itself into election day with free cones and got some good brand buzz and store traffic as a result.