Starbucks is chasing its second cultural hit in two weeks as summer winds down.
The coffee company brought back the Pumpkin Spice Latte on August 25, sticking to its usual late-August window.
It comes just over a week after the Unicorn Frappuccino's two-day comeback sold more than 2 million drinks.
Starbucks called it the biggest North America company-operated sales weekend it has ever had.
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Starbucks enlisted Martha Stewart and Belmont Cameli, the actor who plays hockey captain Garrett Graham on Prime Video's "Off Campus."
The pairing puts two different fanbases side by side.
Stewart represents the drink's long-running status as a fall signifier.
The lifestyle mogul has openly defended the beverage against years of jokes about its mainstream popularity.
On the other hand, Cameli covers the PSL's newer audience, the college-age fans who watch for seasonal drops and order theirs iced.
Starbucks is also collecting real customer posts and reactions to run alongside the campaign.
This approach treats the drink's own fan base as a second source of content marketing material.
This fan-content layer sits at the center of Starbucks' marketing strategy for the launch, giving the campaign a solid proof point.
The Joke That Came With PSL
The centerpiece is a social ad called "Basic Is So Back," starring Stewart and Cameli.
The two keep up a running joke that has followed the PSL online since its early years.
"Oh, Pumpkin Spice Latte? The drink that makes us all a little more basic?" the TV personality tells the viewers.
She gets her drink from the counter and quickly compliments its scent, reminding her of her own home during the fall season.
Then Cameli enters, who tells Martha that she would be the type to get the drink hot.
"Should I know him?" Martha asks, delivering the punchline.
Starbucks launched the spot alongside a 30-second launch film called "The One and Only," airing on TV.
The film uses archival and found footage mixed with user-generated clips of genuine fan reactions to make the case for the drink's staying power.
Owning the basic joke costs Starbucks nothing and hands fans a line they were already using.
Pairing a celebrity endorsement with archival fan footage lets the audience make the sales argument on Starbucks' behalf.
A Drink That Stood the Test of Time
The PSL has been on the fall menu since 2003, with one recipe change in 2015 that added real pumpkin.
The campaign spends its runtime arguing that the drink still sells itself, and the numbers justify this claim.
Last year, Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol told partners that the fall launch was the company's strongest Tuesday sales day ever.
So how do you promote a drink that speaks for itself?
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Several takeaways stand out in Starbucks' campaign with Stewart and Cameli:
- Stack your launches deliberately: Starbucks followed the Unicorn Frappuccino's sales record with a legacy product's return, keeping the brand selling with no gap in between.
- Let existing footage prove demand: Archival clips and fan uploads cost a fraction of a new shoot while showing real people choosing the product on their own.
- Cast for the audience you have: Pairing a long-time advocate with a younger creator covers two age brackets on a single media buy.
The win here is a release calendar that keeps a proven hit in constant rotation.
Our Take: What's Fall Worth to Starbucks?
As the numbers show, fall is everything to the company.
The Unicorn weekend could have been a victory lap, but Starbucks used it as a warm-up act for the PSL nine days later.
We think this sequencing is its own kind of marketing decision, one that has nothing to do with the drink and everything to do with pacing.
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A brand with one seasonal hit gets a headline.
A brand that queues up the second before the first stops trending gets a pattern people plan around.
In short, Starbucks gained momentum and is keeping the ball rolling, as it should.
The fall menu has become an appointment that customers set for themselves.
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