The idea was simple: an online contest allowing Dunkin’ Donuts® fans to create the brand’s next donut to bring attention back to the category. In 2009 and 2010, Dunkin’ Donuts turned over the reins of product development to its fans by inviting them to Create Dunkin’s Next Donut, a crowd-sourcing contest. Donut lovers across the country were invited to create a truly custom donut, and submit it for a chance to win $12,000, as well as the thrill of having their donut sold in the brand’s 6,300+ U.S. restaurants. 

Social Success

The core functionality of the Create Dunkin’s Next Donut Contest is a rich Flash-based website created by Studiocom, which enables people to visually build, name, and provide their inspiration for a truly custom donut. The variety of ingredients–including shape, dough, filling, frosting and toppings–allows for over 950,000 possible unique creations. 

Even though the contest entry period was only four weeks in length, excitement around the promotion built through the different phases, culminating in the announcement of the winner. Donuts were sharable and finalists created their own campaigns to get their friends and family to vote for their creation. Consumer engagement with the donut creator continues year-round—with more donuts created outside of the promotional period than within it.  To date, over 1 million donuts have been created on the site.

Studiocom Delivers

Create Dunkin’s Next Donut really struck a chord with brand and donut fans across the country, as evidenced by participation levels, which far exceeded the promotion agency’s projections for the first year by over 2200%!  In 2010, the contest had a 12% year-over-year increases in unique visitors who entered the contest, 27% increase in unique visitors who created a donut, and a 9% increase in consumer votes and a 120% increase of Dunkin’ Perks® Rewards email opt-ins, without any media spend. The ability to create, save and share a donut creation with an easy-to-understand user interface work together for a crowd-sourcing experience that is uniquely Dunkin’ Donuts.