Coffee and Creativity in Starbucks’ Welcoming New Ad

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What’s a Starbucks for? “Coffee” you might answer, but the truth is so much wider. A Starbucks is the classic “third space”, a place that isn’t work or home where you can hang out, have fun and hatch your plans. And it’s that sense of Starbucks as the home of creativity that animates the brand’s newest “Made in Starbucks” campaign.

Created with agency Anomaly, “Made in Starbucks” is all about celebrating what happens in the coffeehouses, not just what they sell. Shot as a fast-paced montage of real customers, baristas and groups of friends, the ad shows people in Starbucks as they laugh, joke, work together and come up with great ideas. From sketches to side hustles it’s all ‘made in Starbucks’.

Propelling the ad forward is its soundtrack, Happy Monday’s ebullient 1990 hit “Step On”, which won praise from commenters in our Test Your Ad Pro sample as an excellent choice. The track’s baggy rhythms and quirky lyrics fit the sense of loose, vibrant creativity the ad is trying to project. Giving an ad the right soundtrack is a crucial part of creative decision-making, and this one strikes the right note – nostalgic but dynamic and with a catchy melody that sticks in the head and helps build positive impressions.

That’s not the only element making this ad effective and memorable. If you look at the “Salesmanship v Showmanship” section of the Test Your Ad Pro report you’ll see Starbucks is overindexing on several key Showmanship elements – like “Characters Acting” and “Recognisable Place” as well as “Hummable Tune”. Showmanship elements matter because they’re the parts of an ad that help it build long-term emotional effectiveness.

This is also an ad with a whole lot of what Orlando Wood calls “between-ness” – the human connections, gestures and glances that turn a flat ad into window onto a vivid world. And between-ness is another driver of that long-term attention and effectiveness.

The payoff to all this is an ad with very good long-term growth potential, in the top quartile of coffee shop ads. And the ad really kicks off with its Gen Z and Millennial audience. We used Test Your Ad Pro+ to test the commercial among Starbucks’ target customers in these demographics and for both Gen Z and Millennials it scored a maximum 5.9-Stars. These younger customers really appreciated the energy, coolness and atmosphere of the commercial.

The message of “Made in Starbucks” is resonating with both the general audience and the target customers. Behind “Starbucks” and “Coffee” the third most important attribute for the audience is “socialising”. The ad is doing its job of reminding viewers that Starbucks is a place where friendships can flourish, ideas can spark and things can get done. It’s a strong reminder of Starbucks’ social roots and the creative vibe it still fosters.