When Time Inc. was strictly a magazine publisher, it wasn’t exactly Dunkin Donuts’ cup of tea from an advertising standpoint. But when the quick-serve coffee and baked goods giant wanted to promote its drinks to a younger, more female demographic in the most integrated way possible, Time Inc.’s digital offerings were a great match.
Time Inc., Dunkin Donuts and its media agency, Trilia, decided that entertainment awards ceremonies were an effective leverage point to attract the desired audience, explains Nick Dunham, Director of Media & Partnerships at Dunkin Donuts. “Obviously the red carpet and the coverage there is such a big part of the overall conversation for that demo,” Dunham says in this interview with Beet.TV.
The trick to figure out was how to have Dunkin Donuts be part of a red carpet program authentically “and not just run our ads and try to be who we’re not,” he adds.
The result was Time Inc. content creators incorporating coffee “into almost everything they were doing,” including Facebook Live, People Now and a Dunkin Donuts sponsorship of the SAG Awards. Talent was recruited to talk on camera about how the company’s various coffees would help them get through the festivities.
While there were many aspects to the effort, “Singularly they were great,” says Dunham. “But when you look at the whole program in totality, it was much, much bigger than anything we’ve done in the past.”
Dunham, whose background includes media positions at traditional, full-service agencies like DDB Needham, Mullen and DMB&B, likes the “amazing things” marketers can do to customize their video messaging.
“It’s not just ‘here’s our program, insert your ad here.’ It’s really about this idea of helping us figuring out marketing challenges to audiences and then leveraging all of the great stuff being done to bring that through is what gets me most excited,” he says.
This video is part of Beet.TV’s coverage of the IAB’s Digital Content NewFronts 2017. The series is sponsored by the IAB. For more videos from the #NewFronts, please visit this page.
