Dunkin’ was clawing for relevancy in an ongoing attention-grabbing competition, and losing. The closest competition, Starbucks and McDonald’s, were globally recognized icons, who had built their market share through disciplined uniformity. A Starbucks anywhere looks like a Starbucks everywhere. Predictable, seamless—but a little soulless.

We had to forge our own path.

In this world of careful, curated branding, we had a real strength: the inimitable soul of Dunkin’. The every-man ethos, the hustle, and the slightly chaotic energy that came from their roots in the Northeast.

Throughout the campaign, we went all in on our very particular character, from our iconic brand ambassador, Ben Affleck, to his Boston accent, to the 90s deep cuts and the self-aware humor of Ben’s overblown Boston swagger.

We eschewed generality for specificity, and stood in stark contrast to the polish and corporatism of the competitors. And that enthusiastic authenticity is how we won.

We made Ben Affleck, 50-something year old Bostonian and huge fan of Dunkin’, the Official Face of the Brand.

Over three chapters, the momentum around our “Dunkin’ Cinematic Universe” grew, as did people’s attachment to its main character: Ben, but More.

This Ben has more of a Boston accent, more pride in his love of Dunkin’, more desperation to seem relevant in front of young pop stars. In our final spot, Ben reveals his ultimate dedication to both his 90s nostalgia and his love of Dunkin: the retro-inspired “man-boy band”, The DunKings.

The self-referential, humorous core of the story helped drive billions in earned media.

And to land it, we knew what to commit to the bit just as hard as “Ben, but More” was committed to Dunkin’. We had to make the full 90s boy band tracksuits, the boy band choreography, and of course—the song.

We dug into the data and discovered that Dunkin’s largest sales opportunity, Infrequent and Lapsed purchasers, came for just three things: hot coffee, donuts, and iced coffee.

All those limited time offers weren’t building new use cases.

We also learned that these Infrequent customers had positive feelings about Dunkin’s brand. We’d lost relevance and top-of-mind awareness, but that sense of nostalgia and love remained.

It wasn’t that we had to reinvent the brand. It was that we had to reintroduce it, to use the brand’s core ID to activate the love that already existed, or spread that love to new people.

Often, the best way to do that is to elevate and dramatize a true believer. A savvy cultural observer would notice that there was one fan more loyal, and more entwined with Dunkin’, than the rest.

On St. Patrick’s Day, over a month after the original DunKings spot aired during the Super Bowl, the Governor of Massachusetts addressed a huge audience dressed in a DunKings tracksuit. With the Lt. Governor, she recited the spot word-for-word.

We saw kids perform the spot at talent shows, and little girls sing “Don’t Dunk Away at My Heart” to themselves at the dentist.

It’s fair to say, the spot (and the song) stuck.

All in, “The DunKings” surpassed all expectations, earning 40.4B impressions (more than Dunkin’ saw in all of 2022), 96% positive sentiment, and selling out merch in 19 minutes.

Across all three chapters of the Universe, Ben + Dunkin’ generated:

69.1 Billion Earned Impressions

+14pts brand awareness

+11pts consideration

+10.7% increase in sales

114k organic views on the YouTube official lyric video