By Allen Haynes, Director, Public Relations

Company

Since 1971, Starbucks Coffee Company has been committed to ethically sourcing and roasting high-quality arabica coffee. Today, with stores around the globe, the company is the premier roaster and retailer of specialty coffee in the world.

Business Issue & Results

Starbucks maintains a strong commitment to its local presence -- but this can bring forth a challenge for an international brand. By partnering with Starbucks' PR strategists on national initiatives and integrating Starbucks into Atlanta traditions, Duffey built a media and community campaign establishing strong ties with our highly diverse city.

“Read for the Record,” the national campaign between Starbucks and Jump Start, a non-profit supporting early childhood education, set the world record for the number of adults and children reading the same book together on the same day. By bringing together personalities such as former Atlanta Mayor Sam Massell and news anchor Karen Greer – along with Atlanta’s many noted celebrities – we were able to make the Atlanta voice of Read for the Record a media and community hit.

In addition to joining in on national events, Duffey created a Starbucks presence at “The Macy’s Great Tree Lighting,” an honored holiday tradition dating back to 1948, bringing together more than 100,000 Atlanta residents and national celebrities such as Trace Adkins.

We promoted Starbucks’ Holiday Cheer Party – and “My Starbucks” with Project Runway’s Mychael Knight, introducing new products such as the holiday Beverage Trio and the Starbucks’ lunch menu.

The result was more than 50 million raw media impressions within the Atlanta market – including coverage in all ranked broadcast and print media.