The social media idea path is like watching cells grow and multiply. Here is the exciting path of this idea related to Dunkin’ Donuts and the Super Bowl. Sunday, January 20, I’m on Twitter the night of the Green Bay/New York Giants NFC Championship game. People tweeted about the final moments of the game and upon its conclusion, I started tweeting with my Boston friends who like Dunkin’ Donuts, how that popular east coast franchise can capitalize on the Super Bowl with two teams competing from their two largest markets, Boston and New York City. Those friends included Doug Haslam, Chip Griffin, Geoff Livingston (DC guy but also responded to tweet string), Scott Monty, Sarah Wurrey, and Mike Volpe.

A quick review of the Dunkin’ Donuts website reveals that Dunkin’ has extensive experience working with NFL promotions and even has run contests with both the New York Giants and New England Patriots. Excellent. Dunkin’ Donuts slogan is America Runs on Dunkin’ - Are you thinkin’ what I’m thinkin’?

On Monday, January 21, I thought of an idea and blogged about it on our marketing blog about a Super Bowl contest that ties into the slogan, Dunkin’ Donuts Has a Super Opportunity , the team with the most rushing yards would earn for that market a free something, maybe a Dunkin loyalty card with a free cup of coffee loaded on it or a free coffee during the two hours after the game (you get the picture). I also sent in a link to the idea on the Dunkin’ Donuts website, through customer relations.

on Wednesday, January 23, I received the resonse below. I’ve given the response grades, and invite yours as well. A couple of more data points here. 1) I did not submit to a PR or media inquiry because I did not find an email for one on the site at the time and 2) Dunkin’ Donuts is currently running (pardon the pun) a user generated campaign on You Tube called How Do You Keep America Running.

Here is Dunkin’s reply to our Rushing Yardage contest idea:

Dear Albert,

Ref # 4488839
Here are my grades for their response:

1) Timeliness they at least replied within a couple of days. - A Excellent,

2) Sincerity, it looks like a boilerplate response - C to me some of the copy is a bit condescending , however, I can understand this given that someone might claim rights to an idea, which leads to my next grading topic,

3) Legal cover, nice job lawyers - A

4) Brand loyalty impact, has the response improved your feeling of the brand - B While the response did not uniquely notice the submission, it did attempt to respond in a timely and polite manner and for that Dunkin’ Donuts deserves some credit.

Overall It’s a B, time for another coffee.

Dunkin’ Donuts already has plenty of NFL promotions, but try this one for the Super Bowl.
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Dunkin’ Donuts slogan is America Runs on Dunkin’ - Yeah and I love, love, love, their coffee. They don’t have any stores in St. Paul, Minnesota where I live so when I visit cities that have Dunkin’, I binge drink, that’s right I’m a binge Dunkin Donuts coffee drinker. I hope my life insurer isn’t blog savvy, probably not so I’m not worried.

Anyway here’s the promotion. Boston and New York City are two of the largest markets for Dunkin’. They have run contests in these markets before. They should have a promotion of a free small cup of coffee in the city of the team that has the most rushing yards in the Super Bowl. It doesn’t matter if the team wins, just if they have the most rushing yards.

Sure you have details to work out like, where do you draw the line on participating stores, (New York/New Jersey metro area) and do you have it for just a small time period, say like 3 hours after the game ends, but it can be done. They can plug it into their contest site that exists now, have people register (as they have already on their site) and guess the winning yardage and team, then have a drawing in case of a tie, which there probably will be. They have done contests before with the NFL so this should be a slam dunk-in eh. Promote with Twitter, Facebook, and other social media.

Like anything there are probably plenty of reasons not to do it, but from a PR, marketing fun tactic it’s a great idea.