In his Election Day victory speech, Barack Obama sent out a nationwide call to service. Starbucks heard the call and decided it was the perfect opportunity to demonstrate “You & Starbucks. It’s bigger than coffee.” We used the construct of “you do something, Starbucks does something.” If you pledged five volunteer hours, Starbucks gave you a free tall brewed coffee. Our “Volunteer” ad, with upbeat music and animation, presented a vision of what good we could accomplish if we all worked together. By inciting a grassroots volunteer movement, Starbucks demonstrated how its relationship with its customers is bigger than coffee.

Given a limited media budget, we focused on times of the year when social consciousness was already raised. Rather than launch a typical corporate “goodwill” campaign, we decided the best way to get people to take action was to take action ourselves and help facilitate a social movement. If you cared enough to vote, we would care enough to give you a free coffee. If you cared about AIDS in Africa, we would give five cents from every drink you bought. If you cared about answering the new president’s call to service, we would give you information on volunteerism opportunities (and free coffee).

After our three initiatives, customers were more likely to say we were a good company than just six months prior. Positive brand beliefs led to consumer action. Vote: Despite airing a TV spot only once, Starbucks saw a 30% boost in store traffic. Traffic resulted in incremental sales, making the chain profitable for the day. Red: The Facebook event resulted in 998,679 RSVPs – the highest ever on Facebook. Proceeds from the Red purchases paid for 2.2 million days of medicine. Volunteer: More than 250,000 people participated, pledging 1.25 million hours – far surpassing the goal of 1 million pledge hours. The event received 283,281 Facebook RSVPs.