When the Season Cooled, Starbucks Chilled Kept Growing

Challenge

Iced coffee is closely tied to summer consumption, making it increasingly difficult to sustain sales as seasonal demand begins to slow. Starbucks needed to maintain momentum in a cooling category, strengthen product visibility and encourage purchases across both physical stores andd elivery platforms. The challenge was to demonstrate that retail media could generate growth beyond underlying category trends and deliver measurable results across three different retail environments.

Solution

Together with Footprints AI, Delaco activated an omnichannel strategy for Starbucks Chilled across Profi, Carrefour and Bringo. Dynamic in-store screens reached relevant shoppers during their store visits, while retailer app placements and precisely timed push notifications reinforced visibility before purchase. On Bringo, sponsored search and category placements connected product discovery directly with basket additions. By combining shopper intelligence with moment-based activation, the campaign created a coordinated approach to driving sales across physical and digital shopping journeys.

Results

The campaign demonstrated how retail media can sustain commercial growth even as seasonal demand slows:

+22pp growth advantage in Carrefour, with promoted SKUs increasing 8.39% in campaign stores versus a 13.75% decline in control stores.
Portfolio-wide outperformance in Carrefour, where the full Starbucks range grew 2.73% compared with a 14.49% decline in control stores.
+103% sales volume growth on Bringo, nearly five times the 21.6% growth recorded by the coffee drinks category.
Category volume share increased from 27% to 45% on Bringo, demonstrating stronger competitive performance.
Positive growth in Profi, with promoted SKUs increasing 2.14% while control stores declined by approximately 1.5%.

By combining precise shopper targeting, omnichannel visibility and purchase-focused placements, Starbucks Chilled drove positive growth for promoted products across all three retail environments. The campaign demonstrated how retail media can help brands outperform control-store trends, strengthen category share and sustain commercial momentum beyond peak seasonal demand.

Download the full case study to discover how Starbucks Chilled used retail media to outperform control stores, double delivery sales and strengthen category share across Profi, Carrefour and Bringo.

‍