Starbucks and Anomaly Combine To Brew Something Good

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Starbucks and its new advertising agency Anomaly, are making interesting new product- and café-focused commercials. The cinematic spots feature soundtracks by AC/DC, The Ting Ting, and Willie Nelson. And smart copy.

It starts in darkness.
In countless neighborhoods before sunrise.
And then suddenly,
out of the darkness,
energy.

According to Marketing Dive, Starbucks executives including CEO Brian Niccol affirmed that marketing investments are a large part of the chain’s turnaround plan.

Starbucks saw U.S. comparable store sales drop 4% year over year in Q1 fiscal year 2025, results that Niccol said had “room for improvement.” To that end, Starbucks is reallocating budgets from discounting to marketing.

The “Not My Name” spot points to the fact that Starbucks baristas are returning to a time-honored tradition. “We’re tracking down the Sharpies and we’re going to get back to writing little notes on the cups,” Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol said.

For years, the company’s baristas wrote customer orders and names on individual cups. In 2020, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the company made the decision to put the practice on hold.

The “Stay Awhile” spot promotes free refills, a tactic that also seeks to boost the time customers spend in the stores.

Interestingly, Starbucks’ former CEO, Howard Schultz, didn’t like spending money on advertising. In a 2010 interview with Harvard Business Review, he said, “We never were a traditional advertiser, and our marketing dollars were typically spent in the store because our baristas and word of mouth built that brand.”

In the same interview, he disputes that the relevancy of a Starbucks retail store or café doesn’t have staying power. “I would say the opposite. We are living in a society where there is a need for human connection and a sense of community. And what we do every day is bring people together.”