Starbucks
Starbucks wanted to drive incremental in-store visits using an innovative Snapchat approach. By leveraging the platform’s Promoted Places, the US chain brought its locations to life on the Snap Map, boosting online reach and in-store visits among coffee-lovers nationwide.
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Despite more than 50 years on the coffee scene, Starbucks continues to innovate. Recently, the US brand wanted to translate online scrolling into in-store sales. To do this, it integrated its Spring Refreshers launch into its Back to Starbucks initiative, and it needed a truly exciting approach to ensure incremental visits. That’s where Snapchat came in.
Starbucks leveraged Snapchat’s Promoted Places to reach coffee lovers as they checked in on friends and checked out their surroundings on Snap Map. The brand turned its branches into discoverable destinations, highlighting each location with a promoted pin and an enhanced Place Profile. By using custom 3D creative and Map Effects, Starbucks added a branded layer to the experience, elevating the strategy even further. Snapchatters could easily discover nearby Starbucks locations, explore the Place Profile, and then plan a visit from the map. This approach, which also highlighted key details like opening hours and ordering details, allowed the brand to connect local discovery with a measurable visitation outcome.
More Ways To Win With Snapchat
By using Promoted Places, Starbucks saw a distinct perk in performance. The campaign delivered a 106% incremental visit lift, compared with the 22.6% InMarket QSR benchmark, at a cost of $0.21 per incremental visit 1.
Starbucks reached 25 million Snapchatters and Promoted Places during the spring campaign. Among Snapchat's ad formats, Promoted Places was the top performer for driving incremental visits, generating 7.4 million – 68% of all incremental visits from the campaign. Promoted Places also increased the campaign’s total reach by 2.5X.
Since this campaign, Promoted Places has become an always-on component of Starbucks’ seasonal retail strategy.
