How I Accidentally Created A Viral Starbucks Red Cups Website
Tuesday, 11th November 2025
Back in September 2011, I was walking home from the pub with four colleagues - Kelly, Kelly, Katy and David - when we passed a closed Starbucks. One of them said, "When are the red cups back?" referring to the festive Christmas cups that Starbucks brings out each year. I said, "That would make a good website."
Right there on the pavement, I checked on my phone to see if the domain name countdowntoredcups.com was available. It was, so I bought it, went home, and built the site that same night.
The idea was simple. It was a countdown timer showing when Starbucks' red cups would return. I made sure the site was easy to find in search engines by focusing on one phrase - "when are Starbucks red cups back?" - and it worked. Within a few days, the site was getting a couple of hundred visits a day and ranking near the top of Google, even above Starbucks' own pages.
Within a week, it started to go viral. Two presenters from the radio station Xfm mentioned it on air and shared it on Twitter, which caused the first spike in traffic. That was followed by another surge when it got talked about on BBC Radio 5 Live. Soon, Twitter was full of people using the hashtag #RedCupsAreComing.
Then Starbucks themselves helped me out. They sent an email to their customers teasing "Red Cups are coming," and thousands of people rushed to Google to find out when. My site was the first result they saw, so it became the answer everyone shared on Facebook and Twitter.
The drinks were released on November 2 and the site exploded. It gained over 1,000 Facebook likes in just a few hours and had ten times more visitors than ever before.
Soon after, I got an email from a Fox News journalist in Chicago asking if I'd do a live television interview via Skype about people's obsession with Starbucks' red cups. That's when I realised the site had gone properly global.
In its first 50 days, Countdown To Red Cups had over 50,000 visitors from 59 countries. More than half were from the UK, nearly half from the US, and the rest from everywhere else. It got 3,000 Facebook likes and was mentioned hundreds of times on Twitter.
At the time, those numbers felt huge - but it was only the beginning.
After the success of 2011, Starbucks actually got in touch the following year and invited me - plus three guests - to their official Red Cups launch event at the Natural History Museum's ice rink in London. I went along, not expecting to end up being papped, but the next day there I was in the Daily Mail, gliding in the background of a photo featuring 'The Only Way Is Essex' stars Jessica Wright and Ricky Rayment - whoever they are.
For the 2012 season, I decided to improve the site. The main problem was what's called a bounce rate - 82% of people were leaving the site as soon as they saw the countdown. They were only staying for about 30 seconds.
So I added more pages and content, including country-specific countdowns and festive drinks menus. The site grew from five pages to over thirty. I also added a fun voting feature that let people pick their favourite festive drink via Twitter. You could click a button that sent a tweet like: "I voted for Gingerbread Latte as my top @Starbucks Christmas Red Cup #VoteGingerbread #RedCupsAreComing."
The site tracked the hashtags and displayed the live results. It worked - people stayed longer and clicked around more.
That year alone, the site attracted around 70,000 visitors and generated more than 100,000 page views.
In 2013 I kept it going, posting updates and small bits of festive content. That boosted engagement even more - nearly two pages per visit on average - and traffic climbed to 85,000 visitors and 133,000 page views.
By 2014, Countdown To Red Cups was actually paying for my Christmas. Ads on the site did surprisingly well, and that year's stats smashed all previous records.
More than 100,000 people visited in 2014, viewing over 170,000 pages. On Red Cup Day alone, 18,000 people showed up.
But 2014 also brought drama. Starbucks dropped the popular Eggnog Latte from its Christmas menu, and fans were furious. To help them vent, I added a petition to the site. It got over 2,000 signatures in 24 hours, all without a single advert, just a link on the homepage.
By this time, Starbucks had settled into a predictable early-November launch, but my traffic would begin building as early as August as people returned to check the countdown each year.
Starbucks always tried to keep the exact date secret to build excitement, but most years it was the first week of the month. So I'd spend most of October looking for clues. Often a loose-lipped barista would let it slip, or a "12 days to go" sign would appear outside a store somewhere.
One year even Andi Peters - yes, the Andi Peters from the BBC Broom Cupboard - got involved. He tweeted Starbucks UK asking when the red cups were back. I cheekily replied saying they might not be coming at all. A few minutes later, Andi tweeted back to say he'd phoned Starbucks directly and got the official date.
2016 was the high point. Starbucks synchronised the red cup launch worldwide for the first time, and Countdown To Red Cups saw a 22% jump in visitors.
The site peaked on November 1 when everyone expected the cups to appear - but they didn't. Starbucks delayed the launch to November 10 because of the US election. Luckily, my countdown was spot-on.
When the cups finally dropped, traffic surged again - up another 21%. It was the busiest day the site ever had, with hundreds of people on it at the same time. My poor web server kept crashing under the load, and I was glued to the screen to keep it online.
Advertising revenue was higher than ever, boosted by new ad formats that increased earnings by 25%. That year, the site had over half a million visitors and became my second-biggest project overall - not bad for something that only got attention one month a year.
After that, the excitement slowly fizzled out. By 2017 I was working full-time on Higgypop Paranormal, which quickly became my main focus. The success of that site completely changed my perspective - the traffic that had once seemed extraordinary on Countdown To Red Cups was now just an average month on Higgypop. What had once been a big seasonal spike became, by comparison, a small annual blip.
The red cup hype itself wasn't what it used to be either. Starbucks' festive launches became quieter and more routine, more of a yearly formality than an event people counted down to.
I still kept Countdown To Red Cups ticking over for a few years, updating the dates each season, but eventually shut it down in 2024. By then, I'd lost interest - and the world had mostly stopped counting down.
Over the years, though, the site had been covered by The Guardian, New Statesman, The Mirror, The Metro, The Sun, Daily Express, Huffington Post, New York Post, and plenty of local papers around the world.
Even now, Starbucks' own Wikipedia page still mentions it: "The anticipation of Red Cup Day has become an internet phenomenon, with countdowns dedicated to the event; countdowntoredcups.com tracks the cups' arrival."
Not bad for something dreamed up on the walk home from the pub.
Right there on the pavement, I checked on my phone to see if the domain name countdowntoredcups.com was available. It was, so I bought it, went home, and built the site that same night.
The idea was simple. It was a countdown timer showing when Starbucks' red cups would return. I made sure the site was easy to find in search engines by focusing on one phrase - "when are Starbucks red cups back?" - and it worked. Within a few days, the site was getting a couple of hundred visits a day and ranking near the top of Google, even above Starbucks' own pages.
Within a week, it started to go viral. Two presenters from the radio station Xfm mentioned it on air and shared it on Twitter, which caused the first spike in traffic. That was followed by another surge when it got talked about on BBC Radio 5 Live. Soon, Twitter was full of people using the hashtag #RedCupsAreComing.
Then Starbucks themselves helped me out. They sent an email to their customers teasing "Red Cups are coming," and thousands of people rushed to Google to find out when. My site was the first result they saw, so it became the answer everyone shared on Facebook and Twitter.
The drinks were released on November 2 and the site exploded. It gained over 1,000 Facebook likes in just a few hours and had ten times more visitors than ever before.
Soon after, I got an email from a Fox News journalist in Chicago asking if I'd do a live television interview via Skype about people's obsession with Starbucks' red cups. That's when I realised the site had gone properly global.
In its first 50 days, Countdown To Red Cups had over 50,000 visitors from 59 countries. More than half were from the UK, nearly half from the US, and the rest from everywhere else. It got 3,000 Facebook likes and was mentioned hundreds of times on Twitter.
At the time, those numbers felt huge - but it was only the beginning.
2012: Building On The Buzz
After the success of 2011, Starbucks actually got in touch the following year and invited me - plus three guests - to their official Red Cups launch event at the Natural History Museum's ice rink in London. I went along, not expecting to end up being papped, but the next day there I was in the Daily Mail, gliding in the background of a photo featuring 'The Only Way Is Essex' stars Jessica Wright and Ricky Rayment - whoever they are.
For the 2012 season, I decided to improve the site. The main problem was what's called a bounce rate - 82% of people were leaving the site as soon as they saw the countdown. They were only staying for about 30 seconds.
So I added more pages and content, including country-specific countdowns and festive drinks menus. The site grew from five pages to over thirty. I also added a fun voting feature that let people pick their favourite festive drink via Twitter. You could click a button that sent a tweet like: "I voted for Gingerbread Latte as my top @Starbucks Christmas Red Cup #VoteGingerbread #RedCupsAreComing."
The site tracked the hashtags and displayed the live results. It worked - people stayed longer and clicked around more.
That year alone, the site attracted around 70,000 visitors and generated more than 100,000 page views.
Still Growing
In 2013 I kept it going, posting updates and small bits of festive content. That boosted engagement even more - nearly two pages per visit on average - and traffic climbed to 85,000 visitors and 133,000 page views.
By 2014, Countdown To Red Cups was actually paying for my Christmas. Ads on the site did surprisingly well, and that year's stats smashed all previous records.
More than 100,000 people visited in 2014, viewing over 170,000 pages. On Red Cup Day alone, 18,000 people showed up.
But 2014 also brought drama. Starbucks dropped the popular Eggnog Latte from its Christmas menu, and fans were furious. To help them vent, I added a petition to the site. It got over 2,000 signatures in 24 hours, all without a single advert, just a link on the homepage.
By this time, Starbucks had settled into a predictable early-November launch, but my traffic would begin building as early as August as people returned to check the countdown each year.
Starbucks always tried to keep the exact date secret to build excitement, but most years it was the first week of the month. So I'd spend most of October looking for clues. Often a loose-lipped barista would let it slip, or a "12 days to go" sign would appear outside a store somewhere.
One year even Andi Peters - yes, the Andi Peters from the BBC Broom Cupboard - got involved. He tweeted Starbucks UK asking when the red cups were back. I cheekily replied saying they might not be coming at all. A few minutes later, Andi tweeted back to say he'd phoned Starbucks directly and got the official date.
2016: The Peak
2016 was the high point. Starbucks synchronised the red cup launch worldwide for the first time, and Countdown To Red Cups saw a 22% jump in visitors.
The site peaked on November 1 when everyone expected the cups to appear - but they didn't. Starbucks delayed the launch to November 10 because of the US election. Luckily, my countdown was spot-on.
When the cups finally dropped, traffic surged again - up another 21%. It was the busiest day the site ever had, with hundreds of people on it at the same time. My poor web server kept crashing under the load, and I was glued to the screen to keep it online.
Advertising revenue was higher than ever, boosted by new ad formats that increased earnings by 25%. That year, the site had over half a million visitors and became my second-biggest project overall - not bad for something that only got attention one month a year.
The Fade
After that, the excitement slowly fizzled out. By 2017 I was working full-time on Higgypop Paranormal, which quickly became my main focus. The success of that site completely changed my perspective - the traffic that had once seemed extraordinary on Countdown To Red Cups was now just an average month on Higgypop. What had once been a big seasonal spike became, by comparison, a small annual blip.
The red cup hype itself wasn't what it used to be either. Starbucks' festive launches became quieter and more routine, more of a yearly formality than an event people counted down to.
I still kept Countdown To Red Cups ticking over for a few years, updating the dates each season, but eventually shut it down in 2024. By then, I'd lost interest - and the world had mostly stopped counting down.
Over the years, though, the site had been covered by The Guardian, New Statesman, The Mirror, The Metro, The Sun, Daily Express, Huffington Post, New York Post, and plenty of local papers around the world.
Even now, Starbucks' own Wikipedia page still mentions it: "The anticipation of Red Cup Day has become an internet phenomenon, with countdowns dedicated to the event; countdowntoredcups.com tracks the cups' arrival."
Not bad for something dreamed up on the walk home from the pub.