Can You Feel the Love?

I knew there was a reason I liked Starbucks for more than just their Gingerbread lattes (if you haven't tried it, I highly recommend it!)

For this holiday season Starbucks has announced they will be making a big push in social media, calling it "Starbucks 2.0" because they recognize that their customers want to get more involved.

"It's like we've taken the version 1.0 of last year and now we're really doing it at scale and going to a lot more places where our customers already are," said Chris Bruzzo, VP-brand, content and online at Starbucks. "People are saying this is going to be a big year for social media and we're a microcosm of that. Whereas last year it was a curiosity, this year it's a core part of the program."

The chain is continuing its partnership with Red, launched last Thanksgiving, and created a new partnership with Pandora by offering a free "All You Need Is Love" CD, with tracks from U2, John Legend and the Dave Matthews Band, when consumers spend $15.

What I find most interesting is that Starbucks has also found a faster and easier way for consumers to get involved, even if they're not yet comfortable in social media. For these less-comfortable folks, Starbucks created the "love drawing," at StarbucksLoveProject, for visitors to create a digital drawing using different paints and colors. For each of the first million drawings, Starbucks is donating 5 cents to Red.

The Starbucks initiative is a great example of how to create an entire integrated campaign around the web and include all types of target audiences.