Starbucks unveils 2016 Holiday Red Cups
For the first time, the red cups will feature designs created by customers.
Since 1997, Starbucks celebrated the holidays with a special red cup. Over the years, designs have ranged from the modern, using whimsical brushstrokes in bold colors, to the nostalgic, featuring mistletoe and ornaments. This year, the cups will feature designs created by customers with 13 distinct cups in stores starting November 10.
“We hope that this year’s red holiday cup designs express the shared spirit of the holidays as told by our customers,” said Sharon Rothstein, Starbucks global chief marketing officer.
Starbucks invited its customers to share their designs for cups on Instagram last December. More than 1,200 individual submissions were submitted from 13 countries.
“We were surprised and inspired by the amount of incredible art submitted by our customers. The designs were beautiful, expressive and engaging,” said Dena Blevins, creative director, Starbucks Global Creative Studio.
“We quickly realized there was potential to use the customer-created art for our holiday cups.”
The Starbucks Creative team printed each design posted to social channels and noticed the themes that began to emerge – graphic, inspirational, intricate, seasonal, typographic. No customer names were included, just a photo of the cup that was submitted.
“We loved how the red cups with white designs naturally created a collection,” Blevins said. “They hang together as one idea, but each expression is unique.”
Next, the Starbucks team asked a small group of customers to mail in their cup so that it could be evaluated for potential production. The team worked to honor the artists and the integrity of their artwork, making as few changes as possible to the original.
In the end, 13 customer designs were selected from six countries to represent the collective spirit of the holidays around the world. Their designs will be showcased on the holiday cups served in the more than 25,000 Starbucks stores in 75 countries.
“People will be walking around the street in Shanghai, New York and London carrying these cups,” Blevins said. “We love that this year our customers’ artistry can play a part in brightening someone’s day.”
