Dive Brief:

• Starbucks launched a virtual take on bingo, called Bonus Star Bingo, as part of its mobile rewards program app, according to Mobile Commerce Daily. The game also has a standalone site and is being heavily promoted on social through sponsored posts and a #BonusStarBingo hashtag. 
• The game gives participants the chance to fill out their bingo cards by using mobile rewards accounts to pay for purchases and win more points — points are called "stars" in Starbucks' parlance — with the potential to win up to 300 stars for filling out the entire virtual bingo card.
• The game should help Starbucks continue to improve its mobile commerce growth, which already improved from 3% to 7% of all transactions in Q1 of its financial year.

Dive Insight:

Starbucks has been a strong brand on mobile for awhile, and the new bingo game should only serve to bolster its m-commerce and mobile loyalty strategy. There's already a good deal of Twitter buzz around the #BonusStarBingo hashtag, demonstrating how social tie-ins can lead to strong word of mouth and engagement at a branded game's launch. 

Gamifying mobile strategies is becoming a more popular tactic with marketers, as games are both fun and often require frequent attention from users. Bonus Star Bingo also fits into Starbucks' larger vision of “extending the digital flywheel," including figuring out more innovative uses of its mobile offerings, which it first laid out late last year.    

In December, the coffee-centric restaurant chain announced a five-year plan that encompasses a major expansion of its mobile user experience, including recommendations during Mobile Order and Pay checkout and an AI-driven conversational ordering system that launched in limited beta on the iOS app at the end of January.