Starbucks Gives Away Ice Cream on Facebook

By  |  Tuesday, July 7, 2009 at 4:41 pm

Starbucks on FacebookStarbucks Coffee Company has turned to social media to promote its new ice cream brand. The bean peddler is giving Facebook users complimentary prints of ice cream–provided they install an application to solicit their friends with offers for free Starbucks ice cream.

Starbucks is paying Facebook for ads to promote the application among the social network’s 200 million active users. To be clear, Starbucks is NOT giving away 200 million pints of ice cream; the offer is limited to 20,000 people in the U.S. between now and July 19.

When I installed the application, I was told that there would be no free pints to “surprise a friend” with for about another hour. It did, however, direct me to a Starbucks Web page where I could fill out a form with my personal information to receive a $1 off coupon to redeem at my local grocery store.

Whenever I do something on Facebook, such as install an application, my 500+ ‘friends’ that tune into my event stream are notified. That’s not such a bad reach for Starbucks. In fact, it’s almost viral. If I cared enough about it to send free ice cream to my friends, Starbucks’ frozen concoctions would receive even more exposure.

Could Starbucks become Facebook’s sweet success when it comes to figuring out how to make advertising effective on the service? Starbucks will doubtlessly be monitoring how well its campaign is working.

 
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2 Comments For This Post

  1. Ebenezer Says:

    This is a very clever strategy, by giving away 20K ice cream, starbucks would get 20K folks that are signed on with them. I assumed that they would be sending these folks some good deals from time to time, this would lead to some sales.

    Did not state what ice cream it is, assuming 1 pint cost $2.00 and the cost of this activity is another $2 per pax, the acquisition is $4. Now, if out of the 20K, they get 10% purchase per pax at also $4, they only need to sell 5 times to breakeven.

    Moreover, this is very good branding exercise if they are promoting their new ice cream.

    I am impressed.

  2. LQuinn Says:

    I would also suggest checking out the recently launched social network, http://www.HopOnThis.com. It’s not as big as MySpace, Facebook and Twitter yet, but chances are it’s going to boom. If you’re looking for a site that gives away free prizes and cash all the time (and absolutely free), go to HopOnThis. They integrate a rewards program to keep members online and active. The more you utilize social networking functions such as blogging, commenting, uploading photos and videos etc, the greater chance you have of winning prizes.

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    […] Starbucks Gives Away Ice Cream on Facebook | Technologizer By David Worthington Starbucks on Facebook Starbucks Coffee Company has turned to social media to promote its new ice cream brand. The bean peddler is giving Facebook users complimentary prints of ice cream Comments (0) […]