Starbucks Blows Great Marketing Opportunity from Game Of Thrones Gaffe

If you’re one of the 30 million Americans watching Game of Thrones, you may have heard about the unexpected, anachronistic cameo in a recently-aired episode: a Starbucks coffee cup.

Naturally, as the show is one of the most globally-popular TV series in recent history, the internet’s been abuzz since eagle-eyed fans spotted the errant cup and alerted the globe.

That’s correct. This major gaffe was first noticed by some membes of the show’s enthusiastic audience.

The distinctive, takeaway coffee cup slipped past the actors, production and film crew, as well as the various post-production teams and editors, before finally showing up on our TV and laptop screens in episode four of the series’ final season, appearing in a fictional world full of dragons, zombies and magic – which notably lacks any takeaway coffee shops.

For HBO, this slip has required some disaster control.

The day after the episode aired, one of the executive producers apologized to fans during a radio interview, while HBO was quick to edit the sceneOpens a new window and remove the offending cup for future viewings.

For Starbucks, on the other hand, all the buzz has offered an amazing marketing opportunity – one that I would argue the coffee giant has so far failed to take by the horns and run fast and hard.

First, let’s look at how this has played out for the world’s biggest coffee chain.

Starbucks prospers

Starbucks hasn’t had to do much heavy lifting to reap the rewards from this HBO blunder: Fans, non-fans,  companies and news agencies around the world have been in fever-pitch discussion.

From many angry social media postsOpens a new window  by fans annoyed at such a glaring mistake, to more light-hearted commentary from celebrities. For an example, check out Stephen Colbert’s humorous takeOpens a new window .

Ultimately, it all tallies up to mass amounts of free publicity for Starbucks.

Stacy Jones, CEO of marketing company Hollywood Branded, estimated the value of all this free advertising at $2.3 billion. Talking to CNBCOpens a new window , Jones also noted that PR subscriptions service Critical Mention had so far counted more than 10,000 references of Game of Thrones and Starbucks online, on TV and on radio across the globe.

CNBC also noted that “separately, social media analytics and monitoring platform Talkwalker counted more than 193,000 mentions within 48 hours that cited both Starbucks and Game of Thrones, or a variation of the series’ hashtag, on Twitter, in social forums, blogs and news sites.”

And the craziest part is that, according to HBO, the coffee cup wasn’t even from Starbucks.Opens a new window

But that initial assumption by Game of Thrones fans was enough to spark the publicity wildfire for the coffee company, resulting in the kinds of metrics that marketers can only dream of for their campaigns.

Not to mention, as Jones says, “this is just the tip of the iceberg, because what isn’t being monitored or estimated is the word of mouth and social media on top of this.”

However, phenomenal results aside, in my view the coffee conglomerate has failed to take advantage of this golden advertising opportunity.

Starbucks’ muted reaction

Starbuck’s reaction has been subdued. The company made just one tongue-in-cheek tweet in reference to the entire flap: “TBH we’re surprised she didn’t order a Dragon Drink.”

The following day, the company’s social media team posted a promotional tweet of said ‘dragon drink,’ although the post didn’t include any mention of Game of Thrones.

And that was it.

From the outside, we can only speculate why Starbucks decided to maintain its reserve, and at a distance.

Maybe its marketing gurus felt the firm was collecting enough benefits already – $2.3 billion of free advertising is hardly chump change.

Or maybe they didn’t want to get involved in a public debacle that has sparked plenty of outrage on social media and risk ending up on the wrong end of that anger.

Whatever the reason, it certainly seems like a missed opportunity.

Almost every blog and article that discusses the most important social media marketing strategies and tacticsOpens a new window mentions how important it is to be responsive and reactionary.

Whether it’s responding to positive and negative comments made by followers or making posts relating to trending topics, events or hashtags, reacting in real-time is an indisputably crucial element of social media marketing.

Indeed, it has become increasingly important for brands to ensure that their social media posts contribute to a more relevant advertising experience. In Starbucks’ case, however, there’s been a lack of, well, anything.

There are plenty of ways the coffee giant could have gone about getting involved, from sharing related memes, to creating custom hashtags or at the very least responding to some of the comments made by people online.

Instead, Starbucks opted for the far more corporate approach, limiting its involvement.

And that’s too bad. HBO presented the firm with a golden chance to engage social media audiences and boost the already incredible free gifts in the way of marketing results that have already accrued.

Maybe next time.