Costa and Social Media have had an interesting past, including brushes with controversy. In our case study, we’re looking at how the UK coffee brand makes use of social media to promote itself, interact with customers, and share exclusive deals.
Costa & Social Media: The Early Days
Following Costa’s Twitter debut, they had a brush with the all too familiar social media crisis when an ad featured monkeys being challenged to make coffee. Despite the advert being taken off air due to animal rights complaints, it became a hit on YouTube.
In recent years Costa has been expanding their brand. As well as opening more stores across the country, Costa took over Coffee Nation whilst simultaneously introducing the Costa At Home range for Tassimo. So, where does all their social media marketing fit in?
Costa & Social Media: What’s Happening Now?
A visit to Costa UK’s Twitter profile nowadays is a chance to see some true interaction and brand building in action. The page header is on-brand, with a simple product shot featuring coffee being poured into their signature cup.
You’ll also see plenty of engagement-based content, designed to get their customers interacting with the brand.
The Twitter account is also used to field customers questions and queries, perfect for building up that essential brand loyalty.
YouTube 
When the coffee giant first took to social media to promote their brand, YouTube was a much bigger part of its advertising strategy.
Now, visiting the official Costa YouTube channel you’ll find videos posted every couple of months. These mostly consist of ads relating to new products and promotions coming from the brand.
If you want a good laugh, we recommend checking out the video promoting the Vegan Bac’n Bap – featuring the “fake” Gordon Ramsay!
The Costa Coffee Instagram account is, as much as it pains us to say, a pretty standard branded Instagram account.
The vast majority of content posted onto the Instagram account falls into three categories:
- Lifestyle / Product shots
- Memes
- Promotions / Ads
But that’s not to say they don’t make the content fun! Each updated posted to the Costa Instagram page recieves plenty of engagement, showing it knows what its audience wants.
Additionally, as is the case with Twitter, Costa also uses the Instagram page to respond to customer questions.
All of this combines to create a branded account that’s doing exactly what a branded account should to – interact with and entertain its audinece.
Now you know how Costa uses social, it’s time to learn from another brand. In our Amazon case study, you can see exactly how the retail giant uses social media to grow its brand.
Article originally published in 2013. Updated in 2023 for relevance.
