June 2nd is National Donut Day!
Who doesn’t love a donut? I happened to run across #NationalDonutDay in my Twitter feed, and I was completely amused by all of the brands and people talking about it. It was certainly a trending topic.
Effective Branding
Dunkin Donuts effectively promoted and tweeted throughout the day, offering a free donut with a beverage purchase to celebrate National Donut Day. My son and I, always up for a donut treat, ventured to our local D&D to partake.
While we were there, I had to buy this Wisconsin themed mug. I like it for several reasons:
- Appealing color scheme
- Geo-targeted to Wisconsinites like me
- Subtle, yet still effective Dunkin Donuts branding
- Add-on sale at point of purchase
Dunkin Donuts did well to generate excitement with an attractive offer on #NationalDonutDay. The free donut certainly brought customers in the door at our area D&D. PLUS in my case, I didn’t just buy one drink for a free donut (as is usually the case for some customers, I’m sure), so they probably came out ahead even with offering free product. I also noticed their full breakfast and beverage menu, which is larger than I expected with breakfast sandwiches on pretzel croissants and a wide range of hot or iced coffee. By getting customers in the door, companies have a chance to introduce and / or re-introduce themselves to new or returning customers. I hadn’t been to a D&D for a while, but since I had a positive experience on National Donut Day, I am likely to return.
Similarly, I now have a D&D branded coffee mug at home, which will be a daily reminder of D&D each time I use it. That’s the staying power of promotional products, especially when it’s done well so customers want to use it.
Having Fun on Social Media
From a social media perspective events are a unique way to promote your brand in a fun way. Each social channel has its own strength, and Twitter really embraces such days well. I noticed a lot of Homer Simpson imagery. Some local police stations were celebrating national donut day. There was a 5 second video of a US Women’s Soccer player scarfing down a donut. A creative twist, a sports car brand even mentioned donut day. Even the Packers played along with this tweet:
It’s a perfect example of something that’s visual and fun and easy to like while scrolling through a feed. Similar examples were on Facebook and Instagram, where you can also search trending topics or tags. When I checked Instagram, there were over 350,000 posts for #NationalDonutDay. Some images included a donut Snapchat filter, showing how easy it is to share content between social media sites. Many people shared their picture with donuts, often tagging where they received them, thus expanding the reach of the day. News stations shared where followers could score free donuts. There was a lot of donut day love going around!
If your industry has a “day” or week, be sure to work it into your marketing plans. Find your angle and play along!
Need help coming up with a marketing plan or campaign to promote your business? We’d be happy to discuss what you need.