Starbucks Unveils Content Series ‘Upstanders’
On Wednesday, Starbucks will unveil its first content series, “Upstanders,” which will be available via written stories, videos and podcasts.
The free series, which the company began working on in January, is designed to highlight 10 positive and inspiring tales from across the country, including those of Baldwin, Mich., a town where residents have banded together to give every high school graduate a college scholarship, and John D’Eri, who employs autistic individuals to work at his car wash. Consumers can read the stories through Starbucks’ website and download podcasts, produced by Panoply, on a weekly basis. The name “Upstanders” comes from an employee town hall meeting Starbucks Chief Executive Howard Schultz held last year in which a staffer mentioned the word as an alternative to being a bystander.
“This isn’t branded content trying to promote the Starbucks brand or product,” said Rajiv Chandrasekaran, Starbucks executive producer and a former editor at the Washington Post, who wrote and produced the series with Mr. Schultz. “This is storytelling in the public interest, but brought to you by a Fortune 500 company.”
