Starbucks is boosting media investment and diversifying its media mix to ensure the brand remains top-of-mind for Canadians. Its new campaign, “It’s never just coffee,” highlights the coffeehouse’s relevance in customers’ daily lives.

The campaign comprises four ads, “Extra Mile,” “Peace Offering,” “Therapy Sesh” and “Working From Home,” which show footage of simple, everyday customer moments that Starbucks makes special. From friends crying and laughing over a cup of coffee to a special moment with their local barista, the spots centre on the brand’s role in fostering connections. The campaign follows the brand’s new coffee shop services, some of which can be seen reflected in the spots, such as serving drinks in ceramic cups to customers who choose to stay in the coffee shop and the return of condiment bars.

The media plan includes digital, social (both paid, owned and influencer), OOH, search and TV, with Spark Foundry handling buy. Leo Toronto is behind the creative.

Maryann Rusnak, president of Spark Foundry, tells MiC that this is a multi-channel campaign designed to reach a broad demographic audience (ages 18 to 54). Rusnak says the team is scaling up across the board, introducing TV for the first time within brand, and strengthening its OOH, video and social strategies to maximize reach and reinforce the brand’s value proposition.

“While we’ve run smaller brand activations in Canada before, this marks our first national campaign at this scale, with a unified message across all channels designed to firmly establish our presence in the Canadian market,” she says.

According to her, OOH was strategically incorporated into the plan to follow the small, everyday moments in Canadians’ lives (outside the digital space) and foster a connection with them through consistent, non-disruptive exposure. Their approach was to find high-traffic placements that seamlessly integrate with Canadian’s daily routines (transit, movie theatres, highway boards) and present them with creative that resonates with them in that moment.

“So whether they’re at the movies, commuting or simply walking down the street, these everyday interactions become a meaningful brand touchpoint,” Rusnak says.

Overall, she adds that from a media standpoint, their KPI’s include cost efficient reach and unique reach percentage. Engagement metrics and incremental store traffic would be a secondary. And from a business level, their key metrics focus are centred around increasing brand affinity and ultimately converting awareness into measurable growth in sales and market share.

Deborah Neff, VP of product and marketing at Starbucks Canada, tells MiC that it was important to “get back to the brand’s roots” and re-introduce Starbucks as a community hub to foster brand loyalty and support the vision of the company’s new CEO.

“We know that coffee can play a much larger role in people’s lives. Since the beginning, Starbucks has always been a special place to gather and connect,” she says. “We’re woven into the communities we serve, and our stores are gathering places for conversations, connection and joy over handcrafted beverages expertly crafted by our baristas.”

From a creative standpoint, Neff notes that the campaign’s core objective is to resonate with Canadians by authentically representing their relationships with Starbucks. Through thoughtful casting and storytelling, she says the brand highlights moments that Canadians can identify with, reinforcing the emotional bonds they’ve formed with the restaurant chain and complementing the enhanced services now available in stores.