Starbucks is pressing the envelope in plenty of ways with its namesake brand, but the company also is continuing to innovate through its sibling brand, Seattle’s Best Coffee.  The newest wrinkle: a Facebook-based contest called “Create Your Deliciousness.” 

Seattle’s Best has launched a year-long marketing campaign “inspired by the brand’s mission to bring great coffee to everyone,” the company said in a press release.  And what better way to do that than to let every individual define what they mean by “great,” in their own unconventional coffee combinations and dream drinks?[more]

It’s not talking about going “skinny” or substituting soy milk for cow’s milk, or putting those chocolate flakes on top of your whipped cream.  Seattle’s Best means “the unique add-ins and toppings people put in their coffee to make it their version of delicious,” citing a Wakefield Research survey which found that more than 80 percent of Americans had gone to unusual lengths to customize their coffee, with add-ins ranging from cayenne pepper to Gummi bears. 

Seattle’s Best is kicking off the campaign with a Facebook app that invites fans to “experiment” with add-ins such as fruity cereals, peanut-butter puffs and mini-marshmallows as well as to try to win a free 12-oz.  bag of Seattle’s Best, with 100 bags given away daily.  The results will, among other things, “feed into future innovation decisions,” the brand stated, meaning the customers-suggested combos could (conceivably) find their way onto SBC’s menu down the road. 

Relaunched by Starbucks about two years ago, Seattle’s Best has kept trying to shake up the game as the junior brand.  In late 2010, for instance, it launched its Level System to help consumers understand exactly what type of coffee fit their taste profile, relying on a “unique array of numbers and vivid colors” in the packaging. 

Maybe, in this promotion, Seattle’s Best will get around to finding out what’s the wackiest thing that a substantial number of people actually do put in their coffee — and, as long as it’s not alive or illegal, offer it to consumers.