CONTEXT
Every year since going public in 1992, Starbucks has invited its shareholders to Seattle to hear directly from the company’s executive leadership team about the past year’s performance and the strategies that will carry the business into the future. Touch has produced the Starbucks Annual Meeting of Shareholders each year since the mid-1990s and was engaged once more to seamlessly deliver the virtual shareholders meeting in March of 2021, exactly one year following the onset of the Coronavirus pandemic.   

In honor of their 50th Anniversary, and in the context of the ongoing public health crisis, the client wanted to step away from its traditional meeting format and do something a little different. It was important that this year’s meeting celebrate the hard work and resilience of partners (employees), reinforce the power of Starbuck's purpose-driven mission, and explore the possibilities for the next 50 years. 

OUR APPROACH
In only three weeks, the Touch and Starbucks teams collaborated to produce a 103-minute, three-act show that served as an open love letter to partners, customers, shareholders, and the business community — captivating and inspiring its audience along the way. 

Working within the tight timeline, our team provided an endless supply of creative thinking and attention to detail while helping to turn an ambitious vision into a reality. We created thirty new video assets full of engaging stories and iconic brand moments. Paying close attention to CDC COVID protocols, we filmed 12 people in three states over six days. We remote recorded more than 30 people, for 26 hours in total, and worked with 44 international partners in over 20 countries to collect 934 video clips. The result was bewitching.  

Starbucks shared the show via the Broadridge streaming platform and was able to validate their strategic, long-term planning while also laying down the marker to create a new kind of capitalism — one that balances profit and the public good. With nearly 6,000 partners in attendance, and generating a 40% engagement rate, post-event surveys showed that audience members felt proud, inspired, and connected to the company after attending this year’s annual meeting.   

Watch the 2021 Annual Meeting of Shareholders here.