Starbucks Treats Me to an Interactive Holiday Greetings Web Site … and Not Just Good Coffee

I just got a Cafe Americano (two Sweet ‘n Lows, no room) at Starbucks today … and noticed on the bottom of the cup an interesting Web site link to: itsredagain.com.

Two observations:

1. What an incredible, interactive way to communicate with their customers – I know they are loaded with cash … obviously, more than the typical local church could do, but this is an outstanding way to interact with their “drinkers.” It’s humorous (the narrator reminds me of Will Ferrell), extremely well-done, and interactive. They are essentially giving their customers a way to do some neat marketing … while they play in their interactive wonderland.

2. Great use of an alias domain name to generate broader appeal – I’ve seen more and more companies and even churches using alternate to spread their message in a dynamic, interesting way. Granger did it with mylamesexlife.com and Hope Church did it with mymarriagesucks.info.Starbucks has wieldedly this masterfully with itsredagain.com … I was curious enough to go to the site.

Curiosity is a key, I think.

[Which is why, if you ask Granger and Hope, they’ll tell you about the avalanche of hits they got to their respective sites. I interviewed them for this story.]

Obviously, I’m not that interested in coffee to surf over to the Starbucks site … but I was curious enough to try to figure out what “itsredagain” means.

But a warning … do this only if you have the content and potential subject interest to fulfill a promise of something actually interesting.

When I got over to the Starbucks Red site, I felt like I got more than I bargained for …

If I had gone to the site and saw an “Under Construction” site or merely a forward to their main site … I would have frankly been let down. And probably irritated.

OK, so a question: How can you — actually, we, the church – leverage a topic, like a sermon series, and make it interactive so that people will write blog posts, email their friends, etc.?

Is it a site like GoogleGod.org? Or an interactive survey on dating, or ______________?

Offer your ideas or even experiences in the comments to this post.

November 17, 2006 · Filed Under Church Marketing, Web 2.0, Web Site Design

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