The decision comes as Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol and Global Chief Brand Officer Tressie Lieberman seek to reposition the coffee chain’s as a ‘community coffeehouse’ and offer greater value for US consumers
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Anomaly specialises in advertising, brand consultancy, media planning and social media | Photo credit: appshunter.io
US coffee giant Starbucks has appointed New York-based advertising agency Anomaly to manage its US creative marketing campaigns just months after selecting PR giant WPP as its US Creative Agency of Record.
Anomaly, part of communications group Stagwell, pitched for Starbucks’ account last year alongside Martin Sorrell-owned WPP, Illinois-based FCB and Spcshp. Specialising in advertising, brand consultancy, media planning and social media, Anomaly counts major brands, such as Unilever, Coca-Cola, Mini, YouTube and Budweiser, among its clients.
WPP, which had established a bespoke team comprising its Ogilvy, VML and Landor agencies to manage Starbucks’ account, will maintain a place on Starbucks’ agency roster, according to Ad Age, but will lose sole management of the account.
“At Starbucks, we believe it’s time for us to tell our story again. In doing so, we will maintain relationships with many talented agencies to help communicate our commitment to the craft of coffee and create an environment that connects us,” a Starbucks spokesperson told Ad Age.
The previous appointment of WPP in October 2024 came just days before Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol hired former Chipotle executive and colleague Tressie Lieberman as the coffee chain’s first Global Chief Brand Officer.
Niccol said the appointment of Lieberman, whose remit includes overseeing Starbucks marketing, product, digital, creative and data analytics, would coincide with the coffee chain ‘fundamentally changing’ its US marketing to re-establish Starbucks as ‘the community coffeehouse’.
Niccol’s Back to Starbucks strategy includes a new focus on non-Reward Member advertising to attract new customers while simplifying pricing structures and menus to improve in-store experience.
Switching from WPP to Anomaly is the latest shake-up Niccol has implemented since joining Starbucks as CEO in September 2024. A few weeks into the role, the former Chipotle CEO scrapped the Starbucks North America CEO position five months after it was introduced before handing Molly Liu sole leadership of its China operations later the same month. The promotion of Liu came 12 months after Niccol’s predecessor Laxman Narasimhan had formed a co-leadership structure for the coffee chain’s second largest market globally.
Changes have also been made to Starbucks’ menu, with the coffee chain discontinuing it’s olive oil-infused Oleato coffee range in the US in November. The beverage was the brainchild of former Starbucks CEO and Chairman Howard Schultz, who described them as the ‘next revolution in coffee’.
Starbucks has also removed its non-dairy surcharge and pledged to freeze coffee prices across all company-owned stores in North America for at least 12 months.
Alongside improving the customer experience, Niccol has also sought to better appeal to existing and prospective employees by doubling paid parental leave for US staff from March 2025 and outlining a plan to fill 90% of retail leadership roles internally in the next three years.