Many different coffee shops and restaurants celebrated National Coffee Day with deals and promos. Krispy Kreme was giving away free 12 oz coffee ($1.00 extra for mocha or iced); Tim Horton's gave you a coupon for a free coffee if you liked them on Facebook; and McDonald's had free small coffee for breakfast hours only. Dunkin' Donuts took the party to a whole new level by offering a free medium cup of their new dark roast coffee (hot or iced) all day long. While Dunkin' Donuts won in the big promotional side of National Coffee Day, the company also destroyed the competition on social media. Using Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Vine, Dunkin' Donuts promoted their love of coffee as well as our favorite word: "free."
Compared to these other mentioned competitors, Dunkin' is definitely the more well-known brand for delicious coffee, but how did the donut chain destroy the icon of McDonald's? On Facebook, McDonald's has over 44 MILLION likes, while Dunkin' Donuts only has a mere 12 million. The pictures they posted on Facebook earlier today were almost identical, I'd say McDonald's was actually cuter, but Mickey D's couldn't even break 1,000 likes whereas Dunkin' has over 53,000 with 17,000 shares. Dunkin' regularly focuses on their love and our love of coffee, and wants us to celebrate together. McDonald's is too busy with their full menu and other offers to compete socially with Dunkin' Donuts one focus - coffee. DD also built up to the holiday while McDonald's posted once and then the party was over. Dunkin' literally took this term of a holiday to a celebratory level.Dunkin' Donuts made this holiday fun, and that's why social media reacted so well to their posts. The company shared on Twitter how they paired up with Sony on Sony's Vine, which was a stop motion video of a Sony camera pouring a nice hot cup of Dunkin' Donuts coffee to celebrate. It's a brilliant video and collaborating with a brand that we wouldn't associate with coffee tied everyone together for the holiday. Even the New York Stock Exchange celebrated National Coffee Day, with a Dunkin' Donuts coffee mascot there running around. All of these little connections really tied the idea of celebrating together, which I believe was Dunkin's main goal.
But what about one of the most affluent coffee brands? When most people hear the word coffee, they automatically visualize a white cup with a green mermaid chilling in the center. Starbucks has built their brand image and it does have great coffee, but how did they reach to the social outlets on this perfect holiday? Starbucks did nothing to promote the trending hashtag nor did they really acknowledge the holiday any more than they do every other day making coffee. I don't understand why they didn't go along, even if they didn't give out free coffee like Dunkin' Donuts, they should celebrate with the world. Starbucks did little to celebrate, but if you scroll through the hashtag on Instagram, you'll see a good percentage of people posing with their Starbucks and using the hashtag anyways. Starbucks brand is so strong it really doesn't need to promote, but they should have just for the fun.
By the end of the day, Instagram has over 83,000 posts using the hashtag #NationalCoffeeDay. While it's not marked on official calendars, this holiday is important not only for these companies involved, but for social media. People got to connect over the joy of having and sharing coffee, businesses got to prosper with booming caffeine-craving business, and the effects of happiness radiated all over the world.
I love how companies use social media to drive fun campaigns around silly holidays! The first thing I thought of when I started reading this was pirate day at Dunkin Donuts and the dress like a cow day for Chick Fil a. My timelines were flooded with people talking about these events when they happened, and I know that social media is one of the biggest reasons they have such a great turnout!
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