AdMiration feature: Starbucks’ “New Starbucks Iced Energy”

For this week’s AdMiration feature, we looked at consumer response to Starbucks’ “New Starbucks Iced Energy” ad, which brings back a revamped rendition of their popular Doubleshot ad from 20 years ago to promote their new Iced Energy drinks.

Read on to get our 3-2-1 snapshot of the ad (3 facts, 2 learnings and 1 reflection) and learn how their ad was received based on our data.

The ad opens to a man drinking out of a Starbucks Iced Energy drink as he rides back up an escalator to his place of work after lunch. As he takes a sip on his way up, a super group appears and starts playing “Eye of the Tiger.” However, as soon as they begin singing (“Roy! Roy, Roy, Roy!”) it’s clear that they’re singing a personal rendition for the man, named Roy. 

Roy continues into the office and begins doing his job with the band following closely alongside him, singing the custom lyrics:

“Back from lunch, Roy is the man

Got no time for some small talk

His cubicle can never keep him contained

Zero typos in all his replies

He's the overachiever crushing all goals in sight

The afternoon has finally met its rival

He multitasks and circles back

With his eyes on the prize

Before long, he'll be up for his own... fancy title”

At this final line, he stands outside his supervisor’s office, which has the plaque “Glenn Dodson” as a nod to the original spot. 

The ad closes with a shot of all three flavors of the new Iced Energy drinks, as a voiceover says, “Energize the afternoon with new, hydrating Starbucks Iced Energy.” As a bonus at the end, the scene suddenly shifts back to the office as the band follows a woman drinking an Iced Energy drink, singing, “Kim! Kim, Kim, Kim!”

3 facts

• Starbucks’ ad performed very well with consumers, landing in the top 2% of US ads for sales impact (Sales Impact: 98) in the top 20% for brand impact (Brand Impact: 81)

• The ad clearly communicated who and what the ad is for with a high brand recall score of 77% (vs. 68% norm) as well as successfully delivering new product information with a new information score of 4.0 (vs. 3.7norm). More than that, despite the iconic “Eye of the Tiger” track and “Roy” being said repeatedly, “Energy,” “Starbucks” and “Drink” were the top words used to describe the story — further demonstrating how well the brand communicated its message. 

• The spot generated astoundingly high purchase uplift for the brand (which makes sense because the product is new), receiving a score of 39% vs. 19% norm — with 11% of viewers interested in trying the product before watching the ad and 50% interested in trying it after the fact — a huge win for the brand!

2 learnings

• When done right, nostalgia can be a winning element to your advertising. In this case, the nostalgia was twofold with: (1) a custom version of the iconic “Eye of the Tiger” by Survivor and (2) a new rendition of a hit ad from the brand from 20 years ago. But it’s not as simple as “having nostalgia” in your ads, it’s how you use it. Here, Starbucks took what made their 2004 spot an Emmy-award winning hit and told a new story with new characters (and new lyrics) which kept the audience captivated, as well as included subtle nods to the past spot (with nothing lost for those who don't get the reference) to keep them entertained — resulting in a nostalgic spot done well. 

• We’ve said it many times, but we’ll say it again: Music can make or break your advertising. It can cue up the entire tone of what’s to come in your spot, which is naturally a key element to its success. In this case, the “Eye of the Tiger” started to play a mere four seconds into the spot, which immediately let the audience know what they were in store for. But Starbucks took their music selection even further by creating lyrics unique to their Roy character, using them as part of their storytelling to show how their product helps Roy be successful in his day by helping his energy and focus, which added an extra layer into this new mix that the audience adored (Musical appeal 4.3 vs. 3.8 norm). 

1 reflection

Do you think carefully enough about how you advertise brand extensions or new products? There are effectively two jobs to be done to achieve this and this ad is a great example of how to do both. First, you have to make it clear that this ad is for the parent brand so the ad can build the brand's equity. In this case, the ad does this successfully by using their very recognizable green mermaid logo, which almost half the people talk about being the key trigger of the brand for them. Secondly, you need to ensure it's not just 'another ad from the brand' but rather a way to announce the new product or brand extension. 

Starbucks’ ad does this brilliantly by focusing the whole narrative (via the music) on the new iced energy drink that helps Roy be highly successful in his day (all done in a humorous way, of course!). In addition, the new product is featured extensively throughout all the key moments. This might seem easy, but we often see that brands with new products to announce or new line extensions struggle to do both jobs. It's worth thinking about and how you might create an ad to deliver on both right at the start of creative development.

Starbucks brought back a revamped version of its 2004 hit ad in a campaign to promote their new Iced Energy drinks, a sparkling RTD energy drink with zero sugar and plant-based caffeine.

The brand’s new Iced Energy drinks comes in three flavors:

• Tropical Peach

• Watermelon Twist

• Blueberry Lemonade

Each can has 160mg of plant-based caffeine, zero sugar and only 5 calories.

This new spot by BBDO pays tribute to the beloved "Glen" character from the 2004 Doubleshot ad, offering a modern twist with a new office hero named "Roy."

Brian Smith, Starbucks’ Senior Marketing Director, shares: "Ready-to-drink Starbucks Iced Energy meets the needs of consumers who are looking for energy that hydrates, tastes great and feels good. Roy is a reminder that nailing the afternoon requires the right kind of energy — and the music sets the tone. Sometimes, we all need a little 'Eye of the Tiger."

The spot launched on Peacock and on Bravo’s Summer House and Southern Charm. For the new campaign, the brand also created a series of Roy inspired GIFs on GIPHY. 

Starbucks did a wonderful job at mixing nostalgia with something fresh for this new spot introducing their Iced Energy drinks. The ad performed exceptionally well with consumers, landing in the top 2% of US ads for sales impact (Sales Impact: 98) in the top 20% for brand impact (Brand Impact: 81).

The ad did a great job at communicating the new product with consumers as well as being clear it was a Starbucks ad, with a high unaided brand recall score of 77% vs. the 68% norm (nearly 10 points above average!). Viewers also found the ad to be distinctive compared to other ads (Distinctiveness: 4.1 vs. 3.8 norm) and also believed that it set Starbucks apart from other energy drink brands (Brand distinctiveness 3.9 vs. 3.7 norm).

Even though the spot was full of nostalgic nods, like the classic Survivor jam, the revamp of their 2004 spot and even a Glenn feature, that didn’t distract the audience from the message the brand was trying to convey (or negatively impact those who didn’t get the reference) — it just made it more enjoyable and relevant to them! This resulted in above average rankings for Enjoyment (4.1 vs. 3.9 norm), Relevance (3.9 vs. 3.6 norm) and New information (4.0 vs. 3.7).

But more than that, viewers really enjoyed the musical element, which came across in multiple verbatims, with people sharing things like “I grew up on Eye of the Tiger so I was tuned in once I heard the intro” and “I love the way the Eye of the Tiger was playing and the lyrics were changed to describe Roy after drinking Starbucks Iced Energy and being a rockstar the rest of the day.” Because of this, it was no surprise to see that the music appeal for the spot far surpassed the norm (4.3 vs. 3.8 norm).  

All of this added up to an exceptional purchase uplift for the brand, which started at 11% before watching the ad and jumped all the way up to 50% after watching — a 39% increase!

It’s clear the audience was captivated by this spot, but they were also highly entertained, which can be seen in how they reacted emotionally throughout. In fact, “Laughter” far surpassed the norm of an average of 8% at a whopping 20%! 

Moments of “Like” also spiked in the beginning when Roy cracked open the energy drink, which is followed by a spike of laughter when the band starts to play and the singer starts with “Roy, Roy, Roy, Roy!” A mix of love, like and laughter are felt throughout the entire song, with spikes of laughter when the singer mentions that Roy “never has typos in his replies” and when the band follows Roy into the bathroom to sing about “multitasking” and “circling back.” 

Love reigns at the end when Roy is seen entering Glenn’s office and the New Starbucks Iced Energy is introduced. And of course, the final spike ends with laughter when Kim is introduced. Typically, this is where engagement typically wanes in an ad, but the introduction of Kim here keeps the audience's attention and adds an emotional boost right at the end.

Here’s what some people had to say about the ad:

• "I love the way the Eye of the Tiger was playing and the lyrics were changed to describe Roy after drinking Starbucks Iced Energy and being a rockstar the rest of the day. I love at the end it starts over with Kim."

• "Loved the music and entertainers. It's fast paced and kept me interested. Great message: this drink will inspire and energize you to reach your potential."

• "I liked the band and the song they were singing and following Roy who is getting energy in the afternoon from Starbucks."

• "It is fun, high energy and the altered lyrics to the familiar classic tune is playful and catchy."

• "I grew up on "Eye of the Tiger," so I was tuned in once I heard the intro. I liked how the ad used different settings to let consumers know you can stay energized throughout the day."

• "The parody song was really clever, and the juxtaposition of a hair band in an office space was funny."

We thought this rockin’ nostalgic spot from Starbucks did an excellent job at keeping viewers entertained while also clearly conveying their message to try their new line of Iced Energy drinks. What did you think? Let us know by interacting with our coverage of the ad on LinkedIn.

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