Starbucks is officially kicking off its Christmas campaign by introducing the whole pack of festive offerings. Last week, the brand introduced its Cup Magic application, encouraging consumers in the U.S and Canada to animate the characters on Starbucks Christmas cups by pointing mobile devices on them. Now, the brand has launched the dedicated mini website merry.starbucks.com to help its consumers “make the season merrier with the ones they love”—in the online hub, one can learn more about the company’s winter offerings, get the link to the AR application for iPhone and iPad (it will be also available Android-powered devices soon), create an e-card and send it to family and friends via e-mail or Facebook.
Canada
Starbucks is bringing more fun to consumer experience this holiday season by launching its first major augmented reality smartphone app featuring five Starbucks Holiday characters from the brand’s red coffee cups, Christmas Blend bags, in-store and more. This app, developed by Blast Radius, will be launched on November 15—it comes as a hilarious addition to the range of Starbucks’ applications, which includes the mobile payment and Card e-gift apps. It will allow consumers to play with the animated characters (they perform somersault and jumps when get tapped on) and win a prize for activating all of them (so far, the brand doesn’t unveil what exactly it will be).
Starbucks is not only launching new social programs and introduces innovative products to its range, but it’s also doing everything possible to provide the consumers with better in-store experience with a range of features. One of them is My Starbucks Rewards initiative, which was started back in 2009 and is already running in the U.S and Canada, now is about to launch in the UK.
Starbucks wants its coffee to be available in all countries of the world, to all people, but this requires not only opening new chain stores, but also offering equal purchasing opportunities to all customers. For visually impaired consumers, the coffee giant has released its Fall 2011 card featuring the word ‘Starbucks’ in Braille, which is now available in participating Starbucks stores in the U.S. and Canada for a limited time and can be also purchased online at StarbucksStore.com while supplies last.
AXE would lose its unique style if it decided to turn respectable and stop balancing on the edge of decency. And that’s why it’s not going to change its style at all. The brand, well-known for its controversial campaigns revolving around sex-related themes, released a bunch of short ironical spots, which offer another approach to discussing the embarrassing topics. The vignettes, which were uploaded to the AXE Canada official YouTube-channel, appear in the top section on the AXE Channel website for male consumers, which provides them with valuable tips on a very wide range of topics and humorous content.
For decades, IKEA has been dedicated to helping its consumers all around the globe create chick interiors. But sometimes it also steppes out of ‘the home zone’ and teams up with art representatives to introduce hilarious art exhibitions and projects, rooting in or revolving around furniture design—last year, the brand ‘planted’ a ‘Surrealistika’ tree and launched the ‘Garderob’ initiative, inviting clothing designers to showcase their collection in wardrobe mini-shops. Today, August 18, the internationally renowned Swedish retailer is launching the exhibitIKEA in Toronto—the project is developed in collaboration with leading women’s fashion designer David Dixon, celebrated fashion & design photographer George Whiteside, acclaimed sculptor Bruno Billio and Thrush Holmes, popular artist, painter & owner of Thrush Holmes Empire. The exhibit features a number of vivid and vibrant pieces inspired by the IKEA styles and products.