Dunkin’ was squeezed between Starbucks and McDonalds. Dunkin’ had doubled down on product experimentation, but the strategy hadn’t translated to sustained growth. Forgettable ads were forgotten, and traffic was on an 8 year decline.

Dunkin’ had to steal attention—and sales—from their competitors. To do that, they had to make a seismic impact on culture.

We built a Hollywood-style Cinematic Universe with multiple chapters, crazy characters, and a depth of content so entertaining, people sought it out on their own. An extended director’s cut of “The DunKings” campaign became a viral hit and expanded the social buzz following Super Bowl 2024.

While Dunkin’ is a national brand, its soul is found where it all began: Boston.

Boston has a character all its own, and it’s proud. It produced cultural touchstones like Cheers, The Departed, and dominant global sports brands like the Red Sox (MLB) and the Celtics (NBA). The accent is a beloved American icon.

Famous Bostonians are as proud of their Boston heritage as anyone. For some figures, Boston becomes a part of their public persona.

Such is the case for Ben Affleck. Ben’s global stardom has been rooted in his Boston upbringing since his breakout performance in Good Will Hunting, and he’s one of America’s true A-listers. He’s a two-time Oscar winner, a renowned performer and director, and he’s married to fellow A-lister Jennifer Lopez, who appears in the work.

He’s been photographed carrying Dunkin’ since the 90s. Known for his meme-inducing moments of ennui, a 2020 paparazzi photo captured the actor struggling to carry a large Dunkin’ order, prompting fans online to share widely, dubbing it a quintessential “Boston moment” and Ben a “relatable king.”

Ben and Dunkin’ shared the same Boston qualities: relatability, blunt honesty, enthusiasm, and a willingness to enjoy a joke, even if it may be at his own expense.

In this work he is joined by Matt Damon, childhood friend and Bostonian, and fellow A-list actor; as well as Tom Brady, 7x Super Bowl champion quarterback, 6x for Boston’s NFL team, the Patriots.

Dunkin’s advertising was on a marketing treadmill, messaging around constant menu updates. To no end—traffic was declining. And that traffic was going to Starbucks and McDonalds.

Dunkin’ did own traffic and attention in their historic home in the Northeast. 47% of adults in Boston order Dunkin’ at least once a month, and brand love is sky high.

But regional success hadn’t translated to national success. They were too reliant on their core loyalists: 43% of Dunkin’s total sales came from the Northeast, a region representing only 10% of the US population.

The challenge was extending that dominance to the rest of the country. Dunkin’ needed to raise their profile and drive awareness, positive sentiment, and, ultimately, sales.

Dunkin’ had to launch themselves over the heads of their competitors in the public conversation. And that meant creating an undeniable cultural moment that would put Dunkin’ on everyone’s radar.

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 speaking to the Infrequents.

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.

We made Ben Affleck, Dunkin’s biggest fan, the face of the brand.

In Hollywood style, we built a multifaceted creative narrative around him and his new job at Dunkin’: the Dunkin’ Cinematic Universe (DCU).

Over three chapters, Ben became the comedic embodiment of Dunkin’ fandom. 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 90s nostalgia and his love of Dunkin: the retro-inspired “man-boy band”, The DunKings. Complete with a pop track, some cringe choreo, and some wicked tracksuits, we were primed to break culture.

But to land it, we knew what to commit just as hard as “Ben, but More” was committed to Dunkin’. We couldn’t leave the fans hanging—we had to tell the story of The DunKings in full.

Ben Affleck’s Dunkin’ Cinematic Universe culminated in The DunKings.

We dropped a teaser during The GRAMMYs, a week prior to Super Bowl ’24. The teaser was shot in one day, at a single location, and featured custom tracks produced for all Ben’s musical “big ideas,” including his dance lesson with Charli D’Amelio.

The DunKings—the finale, where Ben shows off his Dunkin’-inspired boy band—was shot only a month ahead of the Super Bowl.

The humor of the spot came from the juxtaposition of Ben’s seriousness and the goofiness of the band. So we emphasized both: on the one hand, we filmed in the same studio where Michael Jackson recorded Thriller, and the background actors were JLo’s actual producers. Very real. On the other hand? The song, the tracksuits, and the choreography were designed to be colorful and ridiculous, and bring home Ben’s passion for Dunkin’.

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 singing the song to themselves at the dentist.

It’s fair to say, the spot 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.

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

69.1 Billion Earned Impressions

+14pts brand awareness pre- to post campaign

+11pts consideration pre- to post campaign

+10.7% increase in sales pre- to post campaign

1.87MM organic views of the Extended Cut on YouTube