Situation

Dunkin’ Brands, which makes its home in New England, was seeking to create awareness and trial of its special blend coffee in a very competitive marketplace. Despite the fact that it is the “hometown” New England coffee brand, Dunkin’ wanted to extend its message with non-traditional marketing strategies. In addition, the company wanted to reinforce its positioning as an affordable alternative to competitors’ high-end coffee drinks. Boston Logan, New England’s major airport, provided an excellent venue to showcase the brand.  AMI had become an expert creator of promotional programs inside of airports and worked with Dunkin’ to plan a program to meet its business goals through a non-traditional marketing campaign.

Tactics

AMI developed a creative, multi-dimensional, multi-year, experiential campaign that included quarterly sampling programs and seven-foot tall brand icons of the much-recognized Dunkin’ Styrofoam coffee cup, located in two high-traffic areas in Terminals B and C. These oversized coffee cups were accompanied by a 117-foot long pedestrian bridge graphic connecting Terminal E to Central Parking and many other large-scale, non-traditional media assets.

Results

From the time the Dunkin’ brand icons went up in February to the end of the inaugural 10 month program in December, over 25 million visitors passed through Boston Logan. The brand icons quickly became entertaining meeting spots for hundreds of Boston Logan travelers, and it was not long before various online creative publications and personal blogs featured pictures of themselves and their families or friends with these stand-out icons. Additionally, both airport staff and air travelers received free samples of the freshly brewed Dunkin’ coffee before their early morning flights. Dunkin’ continued this program for over eight years, and it has been the topic of more published articles than any other AMI program to date, including in The Boston Globe, PROMO Magazine, Airport Improvement Magazine and USA Today.