Starbucks' In-Store Wifi Leveraged Into Branded Media Network

UPDATE: See the end of this post for a link to screen grabs and first impressions of the Starbucks Digital Network experience.

Starbucks is giving customers one more reason to stop in, and to stick around, with Starbucks Digital Network. In a partnership with Yahoo, its taking exclusive content and free downloads that are only available to customers tapping into the wifi at one of it's thousands of retail locations.

Double Shot of Content
Customers with wireless devices are typically pushed to a branded site to accept terms of service before hitting the web. What was once a unavoidable nuisance is now a digital destination.

According to Starbucks: news, books, video and music will be available including free subscription editions of The Wall Street Journal, New York Times and USA Today, exclusive iTunes downloads and unlimited access to Zagat reviews and ratings -- all for free.

Rise of In-Store TV Networks
Starbucks joins Wal-Mart, Target and Best Buy with their branded media platform and it's a natural extension of Starbucks music label. It increases each brand's co-marketing opportunities and gives customers a reason to linger in-store.

But Starbucks wifi delivery allows for more personalized and engaging experiences. It's one more way technology like smart phones are bridging the online and in-store experiences. Is it paid or owned media? It's a little of both and another example of how media is changing as brands becoming media platforms. 

UPDATE: Here’s my take on the Starbucks Digital Network experiencebelow and by Flickr screen grabs. Attempts to do a video screen cast/walk through.using Screenr bombed after several attempts. :-(

Upon arrival, there is no trace of the network in-store. With thousands of stores it will probably take some time to ramp up this as an in-store promotion. The wifi page does not even tee up the network. This surprised me as most users click through here with a specific destination in mind.

It’s clearly designed to keep people in the store. Even the downloads take awhile due to the wifi. Commuters getting coffee en route to work won’t get as much from it. And most of the content that is featured features ways to purchase it via iTunes or other third party sites.

Brands can look at this for a host of ideas and there are a variety of advertising and content partnership opportunities that come to mind based on the six sections it has for content, including News, Entertainment, Wellness, Business and Career and My Neighborhood.

There are some improvements that should be made over time. But for the most part, it’s great. I give it an A-. In-store support will definitely help.

Related: Behind @Starbucks digital network with @stephengillett
Cross-posted to my work blog, Thought Leadership

Comments

[Hallie M.]

I tried this out in Starbucks and you're right, it's pretty slow. But I think the free wi-fi is worth going through all of Starbucks' branded "media". Some of the features are actually kind of nice like the free access to sites you mentioned. I think if they really want to keep people in the stores though they're going to have to amp up the speed and just generally make it more user friendly (jumping from one site to another to get to the "exclusive" content gets old really fast). When your desperate for wi-fi its a good option but not something I would really go to Starbucks just to have.

[e.kath]

I went to Starbucks and tried this new service as well, and I think they are headed in the right direction. Sure, it needs some tweaking but overall I think users will start to see this site as a benefit of going to Starbucks versus a competitor that doesn't offer this extra perk. I think co-marketing is becoming more and more important to get consumers exposed to a product or service since there are so many out there, and Starbucks is mutually benefitting from the in -store wifi along with iTunes and other companies linked in to the site.

[Lacey]

I love Starbucks and going to there to do homework, but it used to drive me crazy that they had no wi-fi. It blew my mind how such a strong competitor and well-known company did not have wi-fi access for their customers. I think this is a great step in the right direction. They are providing wi-fi and also trying to incorporate something innovative through the exclusive sites as well. However, I think the speed of the internet is what is most important to customers who go there expecting to do work or use their wi-fi. If that is not strong, then I think the added features they included through these sites will still be somewhat of a fail.

[Kevin Dugan]

Hallie: "Free wifi is worth going through their branded media" is well put. It is more of a trade off right now. As the program ramps up I assume they want the value of the branded media to shift enough that it's worth trading off the slow connection to access the branded media. And I also think more lightweight user actions for accessing content on other sites will be key. Right now the site seems to be designed less flexibly than a social content site. The partner sites should stream into the digital network providing a more aggregated content experience for the visitor. And over time, the more I drink their coffee and surf their wifi, I should be able to customize that view even more.

e.kath: From a co-marketing perspective, this IS huge. That's a great point. It will definitely give them more of a position with other brands.

Lacey: This does seem to leapfrog the issues they created by not issuing free wifi. A lot more homework and "workwork?" will be conducted there.

THanks everyone!

[Account Deleted]

Thanks for your review on star buck, you are true, it is very slow. Thanks for sharing the information on star Buck's in store wifi leveraged into branded media network.