Dunkin’ Donuts Engages Coffee Drinkers on Yahoo, YouTube
YouTube channel toys with "America runs on Dunkin'" tagline.
Dunkin’ Donuts recently worked closely with Yahoo and Google’s YouTube to build two separate, video-driven campaigns aimed at driving engagement with its brand. The Yahoo deal mingles the coffee and donuts icon closely with news and sports content, while YouTube is hosting a Dunkin’ Donuts channel and video contest.
“Yahoo Sports Minute,” and “Good Morning Yahoo” are video news sections users can visit to get bite-sized updates on sports and what David Tryder, manager of interactive and relationship marketing at Dunkin’ Brands, calls “water cooler” news. “Customers can get in and get the light news of the day,” he said. “It’s very much fitting in with our brand: lighter, fun.”
The Yahoo Sports Minute greets visitors with a pre-roll unit that says, “The Yahoo Sports Minute is powered by Dunkin’ Donuts, America runs on Dunkin’.” Additional banners run throughout the page. Dunkin’ Donuts has committed to advertising in both sections through 2008.
Separately, Yahoo and Dunkin’ Donuts plan to set up the Dunkin’ Lounge, a Yahoo Groups community space.
The YouTube integration asks consumers to create personal expressions of its tagline, “America runs on Dunkin’.” “For a couple of years now we have been talking about how America runs on Dunkin’, and thought it would be good to hear from our customers,” said Tryder.
The result was a little North of 200 videos submitted by school teachers, plumbers and other working professionals. “The fabric of America,” Tryder called them. Of those videos, 50 were selected to participate in the promotion, and 10 of those will be selected to win free coffee. Winners will be announced in the next few weeks, and they may be used for brand advertising in the future.
While the YouTube channel stats reports just over 200,000 views total, Tryder reports over 900,000 views across YouTube and embedded links. “Some videos were taken and shared elsewhere; that speaks to the power of YouTube as a channel for advertisers to work with, and we felt it was a successful campaign for us,” he said.
Homepage placements drove traffic to the Dunkin’ channel on YouTube, as did a Google search campaign. Dunkin’ Donuts also bought some display advertising across the site and other properties.
Tryder said Dunkin’ integrates digital with all its media channels. “We work… internally here as well as with our agencies to ensure that with the customer experiences is a fully integrated experience, and what the customer sees is very consistent and very Dunkin’ and all tied together,” Tryder said.
Studiocom is Dunkin’ Brands’ interactive agency of record. The account is managed out of the agency’s Boston office.
