In a post-pandemic working world, it is all too easy to focus on what we have lost. Anyone who has endured an airless Zoom coffin as reward for a long and expensive commute knows the fundamental truth that for many, the way we work simply isn’t working.

Yet, just as Covid blurred the lines between work and home, our fluid working world offers new opportunities to escape the suffocating restrictions of the traditional 9-to-5.

Starbucks successfully uses this friction as creative inspiration in its latest campaign, created by Anomaly, which celebrates in-person creativity.

According to the coffee house’s research, despite living in an increasingly digital world, young people still see in-person connection as a vital ingredient for creativity. Nearly three-quarters (73%) of Millennials and 65% of Gen Z say face-to-face interaction is essential for generating creative ideas, while 58% worry that the spaces where people can connect, collaborate and create are disappearing.

This is the jumping-off point for the ‘Made in Starbucks’ campaign, which authentically celebrates the creative endeavours happening in coffee houses across the country.

From musicians and illustrators to writers, producers and poets, the campaign celebrates the people turning coffee-fuelled conversations into creative pursuits. 

Vic Robertson, Marketing Director of Starbucks UK, explained: “One of my favourite things about spending time in our coffeehouses is seeing how many different ideas are taking shape around me. You might have someone sketching designs in the corner, another person preparing for a pitch meeting and a group of friends discussing a new idea for a side-hustle over a coffee.”

At the heart of the campaign is a documentary-style film featuring real customers, creatives and Starbucks partners, captured in coffeehouses across the UK by director and photographer Daniel Broadley and Harriet Bols through Kode Media.

In a wider marketing ecosystem in which authenticity is in danger of becoming a buzzword, this campaign successfully underlines that lived experience can be the ultimate creative fuel.