This week, the New York Times reported Starbucks is launching a huge new advertising campaign to tell the Starbucks quality story to a younger generation of coffee drinkers. The twist? They are encouraging them to spread the print advertising campaign online via social media sites like Twitter and Facebook.

Photo by Marco Pakoeningrat

Integrated marketing is not a new idea – a campaign with print, broadcast and web components is certainly not unheard of. So what is different with Starbucks’ latest campaign? They’re weaving social media marketing into the mix.

Apparently, the idea of encouraging fans to expand the reach of the ad campaign online came from watching how the company’s over 180,000 Twitter followers and 1.5 million fans on Facebook are already interacting with the brand. People try to be the first to find a Starbucks decorated for the holidays, and post photos on Flickr that have more than one Starbucks in shot.

The new campaign, launched today in six major U.S. cities, asks fans to be the first to spot the new ads and share their find on Twitter for the chance to win one of five preloaded Starbucks Gold Card cards.

Will the marrying of their offline and online marketing pay off for Starbucks?

Read more:

• Official blog post about the contest at Starbucks.com (post has been removed)
  
• Original article on NYTimes.com