Starbucks, this week, updated their iconic Pick of the Week promotion to take advantage of iOS 7’s ability to use the device’s camera to redeem iTunes gift cards. Before that, customers had to pick up a physical card featuring a promo code to redeem the Pick of the Week app and manually type the code into the iTunes Store. Earlier this year, Starbucks began offering the promotion via an App Store app. The pick of the week promotion allows customers pickup cards from participating Starbucks locations and download an app or other piece of iTunes media for free:
If you are not sure how to redeem the code with the camera, check out our in-depth how-to here.
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Cool but…why not just download it from within that same app?
The digital downloads are different from the Pick of the Week cards.
Cool. I guess the way these two lines read, along with the link, made me think differently:
“Before that, customers had to pick up a physical card featuring a promo code to redeem the Pick of the Week app and manually type the code into the iTunes Store. Earlier this year, Starbucks began offering the promotion via an App Store app.”
And the article your reference from Zac has them painted as the same thing…I’m not saying that I know for a fact the promotion app and the pick of the week app are the same, but all of 9to5’s writing seems to read that way…
Which really makes one ask the question…why not just download it in the app?
Some people may be more apt to download if a physical card reminds them to…but there’s still some redundancy.
Sarah is right, the downloads in the app are different from the cards available in store. I see your point with the way the article is phrased, but the physical card and the digital download are two different free downloads, hence the use of the camera for the physical cards.
Thank you.
This feature was available atleast 2 weeks before this article came in. I used it 2 weeks back with a Sbucks store Pick of the Week card.
Just to be picky and particular, SBUX launched their app last year. ;)
(sorry, couldn’t resist)
It was about time. Great for Starbucks making it easier..
Why is Starbucks still printing these things on paper? Why aren’t they pushing this out with an In-store notification using iBeacon?
My iPhone 4 and iPad 2 are forever trying to recognise codes where there aren’t any, but it refuses absolute point blank to read the one that’s actually on the card itself…