Starbucks and (Red) recently joined forces again to raise money and awareness for the Global Fund to Fight Aids.  At 8:30 ET on December 7, www.Starbucksloveproject.com streamed participants in 156 countries across the globe, all singing simultaneously, the Beatles’ “All you Need is Love”.  Following the sing-along, viewers were invited to upload their own rendition of the toon, and also, contribute a “Love Drawing” to the online gallery — proceeds were donated by Starbucks and (Red) for each video and drawing upload.

The site experience, created by Tool, was just one piece of the larger BBDO integrated campaign.  Ricardo Cabello, a freelance designer/developer teamed with Tool, and shares his accounts of the project experience on his blog.  “As part of this massive campaign, Starbucks has also partnered with Facebook to spread the message to the online social network’s hundreds of millions of users…This is the largest global campaign ever for both Facebook and Starbucks,” writes the Huffington Post.  Offline, TV spots delivering the site url ran on ABC, CBS and NBC morning shows.  I haven’t seen campaign metrics, but history tells me that the well thought out Starbucks/(Red) cross-channel campaign should help bolster awareness and fundraising for the global AIDS initiative.  The Huffington Post reported that the Starbucks/(Red) partnership began over a year ago, and, “Since that time, seven million daily doses of anti-retroviral AIDS medication have been distributed via the sale of (RED) products through Starbucks.”

In the 2 years since launching it’s cross-channel campaign, “The Most Interesting Man in the World”, Heineken owned brand, Dos Equis, has seen double-digit growth in the premium beer market.  In the tv spots created by EuroRSCG, you can find the charismatic bearded fellow arm-wrestling a military commander, sword-fighting ninjas, or freeing a trapped bear, among other things.  As part of the campaign’s digital experience, www.staythirstymyfriends.com, 10K applicants enrolled at “The Most Interesting Academy” where they battled in half-a-dozen “courses” including “Culinary Explorations”, “The Art of the Bluff”, and “Survival in the Modern Era”.  The top 7 scholars were awarded prized positions as apprentices to the James Bond-like character, and each also won a guest appearances in “The Most Interesting Show in the World”, a 14-city vaudevillian act inspired by the Jim Rose Circus.

In an Ad Age interview , Kheri Tillman, a VP at Amstel Light & Dos Equis, is quick to admit that Dos Equis has introduced a very unique brand experience in the form of a traveling stage production.  The act has been received with great enthusiasm by audience members and the brand has even received requests to lengthen the show’s tour.  Heineken and Dos Equis took a chance with the integrated campaign which is now paying great dividends — brand awareness is up considerably and more and more bars across the country are now filling their coolers with the preferred beer of “The Most Interesting Man”.  We all know that you can’t win if you don’t play.  Kudos to the brand for taking a chance.