Mainly Melissa!

Shortly After Obama's national call for service Starbucks announced that it was launching a new campaigning that will entice people to contribute to their community. The "I'm In" campaign encourages Starbucks drinkers to commit 5 hours of community service in exchange for a free tall coffee.

Starbucks, not unlike many other companies, have hoped onto the Obama train. Since Obama the beginning of his campaign Obama has started several marketing trends which other political leaders and companies have adopted.

Whereas many companies will align themselves to a cause merely to just increase public appeal; Starbucks' "I'm In" campaign lacks the gimmicky feel that many campaigns can give off.

I would be interested to see more Vancouver companies take part in campaigns similar to this. At this moment in time i am unaware of any similar campaign in Vancouver, however I could be wrong.

Traffic and parking appear to be a real issue in Vancouver. With the new investments that the government has put into public transportation companies should encourage their employees to use public transportation. Currently there are such programs as "Ride your Bike to Work Week" however these programs lack the incentive which would entice people to actually ride their bike to work... In addition to this unless you lived fairly near to your work place riding your bike is not feasable. Introducing a public transit campaign and providing people with a proper incentive would help encourage more users to use public transit. As a result of this more people will be using transit which would encourage the government to spend more in public transit and extend lines to other areas.

The campaign can even be called "Linked" and can have some social media aspects to it. A Translink Facebook app. telling people your bus route and who you saw on the bus and who your buddies on the bus are. Futhermore, people on Twitter can tweet if buses are late, on time, or jam packed.

I'm already loving the idea of this campaign!

you can go here http://pledge5.starbucks.com to find out more about the Starbucks' I'm In campaign.