Dunkin' Donuts & YouTube

Dunkin’ Donuts has utilized its YouTube platform unlike any other. Not only does it serve as a stage to publish relevant content that directly advertises its products, but it also actively promotes consumer content. The consumer content generally takes two forms – celebrity-featured music videos and how-to cooking videos. This blog post will focus on the former

The most recent music video campaign features Odell Beckham Jr and his “Runnin’ on a Cold Brew” videos. The nature of these videos highlight Dunkin’ Donuts new Cold Brew products. These videos are considered content marketing because they offer the consumer relevant and interesting content that is also used to actively engage the consumer with branded products. The catchy tunes and interesting story line of the video serve as the interesting content that draws the consumer in. The product is introduced with the refrain “runnin’ on a cold brew” which implies that it is the Dunkin’ Donut Cold Brew. “Runnin’ on a Cold Brew” has accumulated over 1.5 million views in a little over a month since it was published.

This is not the first time that Dunkin’ Donuts has used a celebrity-featured music video to create relevance of its products to its fan base. Last year, it introduced a four-video, Summer-long campaign featuring both Rob Gronkowski and David Ortiz. These “Gronk and Big Papi” videos featured four different genres – rock, electronic, salsa, and country. These humorous videos were successful in attracting viewers and starting the conversation about the brand. The most popular video got over 1.4 million views.

Dunkin’ Donuts has been incredibly triumphant in creating consumer content for its followers and viewers. By creating interesting content, consumers do not mind interacting with the brand and might instead actively seek the content out. It has used YouTube in an ingenious way to engage consumers and promote its new products. 

Want to check out "Chillin' on a Cold Brew"? Here's the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydRHJm50gfQ 

Georgia Football & Instagram

If you have ever been lucky enough to attend a University of Georgia football game, you might have noticed that the scoreboard will occasionally showcase certain Instagram posts taken by fans earlier in the day. To the average eye, this can be just a fun and creative way to make the fans feel special during the big game day. But, to a marketer’s eye, this is a very simple, but clever marketing campaign that the UGA football department has chosen to implement.

Just by tagging UGA Football into one's pictures or using a special hashtag from that day’s game, a fan instantly enters themselves into the drawing to have their photograph on display for thousands of likeminded fans. Not only does this act as a way to personalize the tens of thousands of fans that walk into Sanford Stadium on any given Saturday, but it also unites the entire Bulldog Nation.

By simply motivating its fans to tag them in their posts from game day, UGA Football is essentially receiving free advertising at virtually no cost. When a fan posts a picture, their whole intended audience will see the image. If UGA Football happens to be tagged in it, the fan’s follower will be reminded that there is a UGA football game later that day and might tune in. It also creates an incentive for the follower to attend a Georgia Football game themselves. If they see that Georgia fans are having an amazing time at the games, they might become inclined to come to the next one.

On the surface, the Instagram posts that are displayed during breaks in the game might seem like a commonplace thing. However, it is easy to see how this is a brilliant initiative from a marketing standpoint.