Krispy Kreme celebrates the eclipse with chocolate glaze

Dive Brief:

Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Inc. is ushering in the solar eclipse with a unique marketing push — it is offering chocolate glaze on its traditional doughnut for the first time beginning the evenings of August 19 and 20, and all day August 21 when the eclipse will occur, as reported by the Winston-Salem Journal.
A dedicated landing page on the chain's webiste includes a video of the doughnuts being made and find a nearby shop where the limited-edition menu item will be available.
Krispy Kreme also recently introduced limited-edition doughnut flavors inspired by Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, the Power Rangers and St. Patrick's Day.

Dive Insight:

Special events are a great way for companies to test new product ideas before a larger launch since new product introductions are expensive and the failure rate is high, Roger Beahm, the executive director of the Center for Retail Innovation at Wake Forest University, told the Winston-Salem Journal. Beahm also said that Krispy Kreme’s marketing team understands the need to make customers rethink the brand and the importance of rising above the norm to create brand awareness.

Marketing around events, such as the Super Bowl or the Oscars, is a long-standing practice that marketers know allows them to tap into a larger cultural buzz. Since the upcoming solar eclipse is the first in the continental U.S. in almost a century, the event is definitely creating cultural buzz and Krispy Kreme isn’t the only brand to tap into that interest.

CNN and Volvo are teaming up for the first live ads to run on CNN, albeit on the cable news network’s live stream digital and social media coverage of the event. But similar to Beahm’s comments about Krispy Kreme using the eclipse to test a new product, CNN is trying out the live ad format on its digital properties with plans to offer the format on all its platform, including the cable TV channel, at some point.

Other brands taking advantage of the event include Hertz with a car rental special to help people reach the path of the total eclipse, and mattress company Casper has a “sleeping camp” costing $499 for two people in Casper, WY, which is in the eclipse’s path, according to the Winston-Salem Journal.