Now, the company is looking to increase this momentum by taking its social media marketing offline. The New York Times reports that the coffee chain – which has seen better days amidst the recession – will include challenges in its offline marketing that involve social media. For example, the first person to post a photo of one of the company’s new marketing posters will win a prize.
NYT also notes that the company plans a YouTube contest for employees, where they get to design the ads. Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz shows off some of the current ads – that Twitter photo bloggers should be on the lookout for starting today – in the YouTube video below:
While the campaign itself is smart given Starbucks’ existing reach on social media sites, it also shows the company is fully aware of how customers interact with the brand online. The Times reports that the idea came from the tradition of “people rac[ing] to post the first photos of Starbucks shops decorated in red for the holidays … and on Flickr, people vie to post photos that include multiple Starbucks stores in the same shot.”