Starbucks is set to become the first brand to pilot TikTok’s new Custom Creator Networks later this summer, but the move to pay baristas for branded videos is already colliding with a long-running union fight inside its U.S. stores.
Announced around June 22, 2026 at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity in France, the pilot will tap the coffee giant’s 3.2 million-strong TikTok audience and invite selected in‑store employees to create Starbucks-approved clips that can be turned into paid ads, according to Tubefilter, Brand Innovators, and other trade outlets.
Under the program, Custom Creator Networks inside TikTok’s Content Suite let advertisers “build a curated pool of creators, employees, partners, or brand advocates to receive campaign briefs or turn brand-relevant videos into paid ads,” Nation’s Restaurant News reported, citing TikTok’s product description. For Starbucks, that means select baristas will receive creative briefs, and if the company promotes their TikTok videos as ads, those employees will receive a direct share of the ad revenue, according to structured details shared with multiple publications.
Initially, that new income stream will be restricted to baristas already enrolled in Starbucks’ Green Apron Creators program, which launched in 2024, according to NetInfluencer, Nation’s Restaurant News, and Tubefilter. Starbucks also hired two full-time Global Coffee Creators on 12‑month contracts in 2025 to travel to Milan, Tokyo, Colombia, Dubai and Costa Rica to generate content, Tubefilter reported, signaling the company’s broader push into employee-driven storytelling.
“Every day, our partners bring Starbucks to life by creating moments of connection with our customers and with each other. And more than ever, they are sharing those moments with the world online in authentic, creative and unique ways,” said Erin Silvoy, senior vice president of global marketing at Starbucks, in a statement quoted by Tubefilter and Brand Innovators. “Collaborating with TikTok provided us with the opportunity to build a customized tool that allows us to celebrate and amplify our partners’ authentic storytelling.”
TikTok framed the new Custom Creator Networks as a way to help brands lean on people closest to them. “On TikTok, some of the most compelling brand stories come from the people who know a brand best,” said Andy Yang, global head of creative and brand products at TikTok, in comments reported by Brand Innovators and Nation’s Restaurant News. Yang said the product creates “new opportunities for employees, partners, and advocates to participate in the creator economy and share authentic stories that resonate with their community.”
Beyond the pilot, Starbucks has an unusually active workforce online: employees post on social media three times more than staff at similar-sized retailers, according to structured data cited by Nation’s Restaurant News. The company has also introduced a separate incentive that lets baristas earn an extra $1,200 per year if their stores exceed sales, operational, and customer-service goals, Starbucks confirmed through a spokesperson.
Yet the TikTok collaboration is unfolding as thousands of Starbucks baristas in the United States, a majority of whom are Gen Z according to marketing outlet ContentGrip, continue a prolonged push for a union contract. Starbucks Workers United, which represents those workers, says more than 600 locations have voted to unionize as of December 2025, but no contract has been reached after four years of organizing, according to reporting aggregated by coffee-industry newsletter Grubstreet and a company spokesperson.
Negotiations have been tense. In January 2025, after at least seven people were arrested while protesting the closure of a unionized store in Brooklyn’s Park Slope neighborhood, Starbucks and the union agreed to mediation, Grubstreet reported. Talks later stalled, and on November 13, 2025, Starbucks Workers United launched an open-ended strike at about 150 stores, with no announced end date.
Union leaders argue that the TikTok pilot highlights a gap between Starbucks’ marketing ambitions and its approach to bargaining. “Rather than listening to baristas’ voices at the bargaining table and settling a fair contract, Starbucks is attempting to sanitize their reputation by paying baristas to say nice things instead of paying them what they deserve,” said Starbucks barista and union spokesperson Michelle Eisen, in a statement shared via spokesperson and cited in multiple reports.
Eisen has also criticized working conditions more broadly, telling Grubstreet there is “no consistency” in scheduling and describing being told, “you found yourself working at a Starbucks, so this is the reality of your life now.” Grubstreet reported that Starbucks uses a 150% availability policy, requiring staff who want 30 hours to be available for 45, while they may receive as few as 17 hours of actual shifts.
In response to questions about staffing and pay, a Starbucks representative told Grubstreet by email that the company has “invested more than $500M to improve our coffeehouse staffing, training, and support on top of offering the best job in retail, with pay and benefits averaging over $30 per hour for hourly partners.” Grubstreet also reported that former chief executive Howard Schultz came out of retirement in part to oppose the unionization drive.
The TikTok pilot is scheduled to launch later in the summer of 2026, and Starbucks has said it will evaluate the program’s performance before deciding whether to extend the revenue-sharing model to a wider pool of baristas, according to structured details shared with trade outlets and company spokespeople, while the union’s open-ended strike continues.
