Starbucks & Lady Gaga Team Up On Scavenger Hunt

Starbucks starts a two-week scavenger hunt in partnership with Lady Gaga on Thursday.

When customers scan QR codes on in-store banners, magnetic chalkboards and posters, they’ll see the first of many clues in the coffee retailer’s seven-round scavenger hunt.

“SRCH by Starbucks featuring Lady Gaga,” as the initiative is called, will start with the in-store QR code scan and take customers through a series of cerebral and digital clues.

Players will be tasked to visit certain blogs and Starbucks digital properties, decode cryptic messages and put their math, logic, reading and pop culture thinking caps on.

The clues, arranged into rounds, have been calibrated to encourage group play. Round one starts Thursday — the first players to solve all the clues will be rewarded with Starbucks- and Lady Gaga-related prizes.

Matthew Guiste, director of global social media for Starbucks, anticipates that it will take players from one to several hours to complete each round. “We hope to encourage group play and sharing,” he says. “We wanted to make it so that there’s things to talk about and share.”

The game, says Guiste, was inspired by three things: Alternate reality games such as I Love Bees, digital scavenger hunts in the vein of Jay-Z’s Decoded book release game and puzzle play.

Rounds two through seven will take place on May 23, 25, 27 and 30, and June 1 and 3.

The May 23 round coincides with the release of Lady Gaga’s third studio album, Born This Way. Starbucks will commemorate the day both in its stores and online. Lady Gaga’s music, for the first time in Starbuck’s history, will be played in Starbucks stores on May 23. Her album will be also be sold in stores.

Gaga will take over Starbucks Digital Network for the day. The digital takeover will invite customers to stream a special edition of the new album for the entirety of the day, receive a free “Edge of Glory” download and watch an exclusive video by Lady Gaga.

For Starbucks, the scavenger hunt is meant to help the company build deeper relationships with its most engaged customers. It also sees the initiative as a way to connect the store — what Starbucks refers to as the “third place” — to Starbucks Digital Network, its content network and “fourth place.”

SRCH is also meant to pump up the volume on the brand’s Frappuccino focus for the summer. In planning, the brand, says Alex Wheeler, director of digital strategy for Starbucks, wanted to experiment with something alternative. “We thought, ‘How can we do something that is a little bit different and break through?’” she says.

The Starbucks-Gaga connection is much less obvious, but Wheeler believes the digitally savvy brand and the edgy superstar have a lot in common. “It’s a natural fit,” she says.

Perhaps by fit she really means hit. Both Gaga and Starbucks will benefit — Gaga in album sales and exposure, and Starbucks in netting the allegiance of Gaga’s almighty Little Monsters.

Let the games begin.