Starbucks and Arla Foods Enhance Creativity in Starbucks Doubleshot® Espresso Campaign

17%

Lift in ad recall

20%

Improvement in ad recall with optimized creative

Starbucks: A Global Leader in Coffeehouses, Roastery Reserves, and Packaged Beverages

Industry
Retail

Brand
Starbucks

Product
BLL, CTV, GrowthAds Advertising Platform

Challenge

As Starbucks’ licensed partner, Arla Foods is responsible for the production, distribution, and marketing of its milk-based ready-to-drink coffee beverages. Constantly seeking to expand their audience and enhance product awareness, Starbucks and Arla Foods recently launched a CTV brand campaign to amplify ad recall for Starbucks Doubleshot® Espresso. The primary business objective was to drive sales of the chilled coffee beverage in supermarkets and convenience stores across the UK.

Solution

Starbucks and Arla Foods partnered with GrowthAds to connect with their core audience through CTV platforms. Leveraging GrowthAds’ first-party data and advanced machine-learning models, they optimized audience reach. GrowthAds’ premium advertising-based video-on-demand (AVOD) inventory allowed them to collaborate directly with top-tier publishers, delivering impactful CTV ads while tracking brand lift among viewers.

To measure the campaign’s real-time effectiveness, they utilized Brand Lift Live by Quantcast™, focusing on the question: “Do you recall seeing a Doubleshot ad?” When results indicated low ad recall, Starbucks and Arla Foods conducted a mid-campaign analysis to uncover the reasons and refine their strategy.

Results

By refining their approach, Starbucks and Arla Foods discovered that their creative was boosting awareness of Starbucks® chilled coffee drinks in general but not specifically the Starbucks Doubleshot® Espresso. Armed with this insight, they optimized a follow-up campaign with GrowthAds. The findings from the Q4 campaign not only provided real-time performance insights but also informed creative strategies for future campaigns.

In their next effort, which featured online video ads, they focused exclusively on a single product: their plant-based offering, ensuring clear and targeted messaging. This adjustment paid off, as Brand Lift Live results showed a 17% increase in ad recall—a nearly 20% improvement over the previous campaign.

The Partnership

Brand: Starbucks

Starbucks, the world’s largest chain of coffeehouses and roastery reserves, also retails packaged specialty coffee and ready-to-drink beverages.

Arla Foods is a farmer-owned cooperative that is the largest dairy in the UK, dedicated to bringing healthy and sustainable milk products to people across the world.