Case Study: DunKings Super Bowl Social Media Strategy☕️
We all probably saw them. Some of you may have only cared about them, the food, and nothing else!
Super Bowl commercials…30 and 60 second stories that cost almost as much as the players in the actual football game. Just kidding, but they are expensive! Like tens of millions of dollars expensive.
So are they worth it?? We would argue that for a brand or company’s Super Bowl commercial to really be successful, it needs to have lasting and measurable impact. One of the most significant ways for a commercial to live on after it airs during the Super Bowl is on social media.
We’re going to dive into one brand’s expensive commercial campaign to see if their strategy was both lasting and measurable.
Without further ado…the DunKings!
What Dunkin’ Did to Make Their Campaign Last
First and foremost, Dunkin’s campaign wasn’t limited to the Super Bowl commercial ad slot. If you missed it, here’s the full commercial:
Dunkin’ began posting music-related reels of Ben Affleck during the GRAMMYs, a week before the Super Bowl. They teased the beginning of the main commercial’s storyline with culturally relevant references and characters, but didn’t actually prompt coffee or donuts. In the week that followed, Dunkin’ shared seven more “to be continued” clips of the commercial’s storyline.
During the Super Bowl, they shared the full commercial on social media at the same time as it aired during the game. The seemingly silly reels and extravagant jumpsuits were actually part of a carefully crafted story filled with intentional talent.
Each big-name star in the video connects to a different segment in Dunkin’s audience. For example, Tom Brady for the football lovers, Charli D’Amelio for the Gen Z TikTokers, and of course Ben, J Lo, and Matt Daman reach multiple generations and interests.
Dunkin’ followed the ad release with five more b-roll style reels with “behind the scenes” footage from the shoot. They also updated their bio, released a DunKing’s limited edition menu, and sold branded apparel that sold out in less than 20 minutes!
A well thought-out story and social posting strategy were KEY to making Dunkin’s campaign shareable and lastling in the minds of viewers!
The Measurable Results
So was their strategy successful? From an analytics standpoint, yes, very!
In the two months prior to the Super Bowl campaign teasers started, Dunkin’ averaged 436k views and 14k likes per reel on Instagram. All of the DunKings reels averaged 5.99 million views and 214k likes per post. This is a 1,272% increase in views and 1,428% increase in likes! That’s incredible!!
The actual commercial was viewed 6.4 million times on Instagram, 4.4 million on YouTube, and 1.4 million on Twitter—totaling 12.2 million views across the three platforms.
The BTS video of Tom Brady, Matt Damon, and Ben Affleck passing the football blew up even more than the original commercial with 23.8 million views, 913k likes, 10.5k comments, and 380k sends just on Instagram.
And if these numbers weren’t enough, the video was rated the #2 Super Bowl commercial according to USA Today Ad Meter.
Takeaways for Your Business’ Social Media
Of course, we don’t expect you to be dropping millions on talent or ad spots. BUT we can learn a few practical lessons from the DunKing’s social media campaign.
Think through your entire campaign from beginning to end, not just the big release.
Choose people or references that are relevant to your target audience.
Use multiple types of content within your campaign.
What takeaways from the DunKings would you add??