Starbucks and Yahoo partnership…

Just read an article by Chris Reed (www.partnershipmarketing.com) on the impact of the above partnership, thought you might find it of interest and am keen to know what you think…

Starbucks and Yahoo have created a brand partnership to form the glamorous sounding Starbucks Digital Network which has just gone live in 7,000 US stores. You can get a collection of hand-picked news, entertainment, lifestyle and local content. It offers six channels: News, Entertainment, Wellness, Business & Careers, My Neighborhood and Starbucks. Content providers include LinkedIn, New World City, The Weather Channel, Bookish Reading Club (free access to books), Foursquare and GOOD. Customers can access a social media marquee on the footer of the home page that links to Facebook. Twitter, My Starbucks Idea and YouTube. Yahoo will also offer search capabilities that will take users to Flickr, Yahoo Sports, Yahoo Finance and Yahoo News. Now I can see what’s in this for Yahoo. They receive millions of dollars of free media, millions of customers who may otherwise visit Google or MSN and brand endorsement from a brand arguably much cooler brand (certainly in America anyway!). But I can’t see what’s in it for Starbucks. They claim that they want to create a stronger connection to customers who seek online content at its stores. But customers can get this content anyway so what’s new? None of this content is unique it’s all just rehashed and rebranded Yahoo content or content from already popular sites. So why make customers go through the Starbucks/Yahoo portal as opposed to letting them have the freedom of the web? There is no compelling reason apart from money. Are Yahoo so desperate for brand exposure and brand endorsement from a supposedly cooler brand that they have paid for this relationship?

Social media – taking over the world!!!

Just watched this you tube video from @Equalman, some phenomenal stats… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFZ0z5Fm-Ng&feature=player_embedded