News

Dunkin' franchisee yields 120% response rate from Twitter app

March 18, 2014

Dunkin' Donuts franchisee First Cup LLC's recent "Free medium hot or iced coffee campaign" has achieved a 120-percent conversion rate in about seven months. According to a news release, Phoenix-based First Cup used HipLogiq's patented social media marketing application, SocialCompass, for the campaign, which uses Twitter to grow customer bases.

The campaign connected with more than 2,000 coffee lovers, the release said.

"We knew that Dunkin' fanatics existed back East but didn't know they existed here in Phoenix," said Alex Apodaca, COO of First Cup. "With SocialCompass, we not only found those fans locally at the exact time they wanted coffee, we offered them an instant reward and reaped additional benefits from them spreading the word to their followers on Twitter. It was incredible to see the results of a few Dunkin' fans connecting with their friends and the viral effect of our campaign."

How it works

First Cup uses SocialCompass to find local, geographically targeted tweets about "want coffee" and "craving coffee," as well as a number of other keywords. During the campaign — which ran from March 26-Nov. 10, 2013 – First Cup responded to 1,827 relevant Twitter conversations, with 2,201 people taking advantage of the free coffee offer. When someone redeemed the no-charge coffee offer, First Cup offered an additional incentive — Dunkin' Donuts Cash — for sharing the offer.

One Dunkin' fan shared the free coffee offer with 1,745 followers, and two of his followers re-tweeted it to another 1,150 people. In all, referrals accounted for an additional 1,485 customers for First Cup during the campaign, the release said.

In 2014, First Cup plans on expanding its use of SocialCompass to promote its menu variety, reach the Hispanic market and target teens through 25-year-olds, where the chain competes with Starbucks, the company said.

"A lot of people in the valley know Dunkin', but there still are a lot of people who haven't tried us, particularly our specialty beverages and sandwiches," Apodaca said. "SocialCompass is relational and provides a personal touch for customers that you can't use with traditional marketing or coupon mailers. It gave us real-time metrics, and we could react more nimbly to the market."