Brief:

• Dunkin' partnered with cookie brand Oreo on a Twitter campaign to promote an Oreo-topped doughnut and Oreo-flavored hot chocolate, according to Ad Age. Instead of announcing the new flavors in a press release, the brands held a back-and-forth conversation between their respective Twitter accounts.
• The campaign kicked off with a short video that was designed to look as if it were having technical difficulties as the brands "swapped" their logo designs and Twitter accounts. In subsequent tweets, their accounts shared ideas for combining Oreo cookies and doughnuts in various ways before making final product announcements.
• The Twitter campaign generated 59,200 mentions of Dunkin', #DunkinDonuts or @dunkindonuts, another 11,300 mentions of Oreo, #Oreo or @oreo, and 3,800 mentions of both brand names, according to Sprinklr data cited by Ad Age. Dunkin's ad agency 360i collaborated with Oreo's creative agency BBDO on the campaign.

Insight:

Dunkin' and Oreo's campaign to introduce the new doughnut and coffee flavor was a clever way to use their respective Twitter accounts for a cross-promotion. The initial "technical difficulties" video generated some online chatter and shares, which grew throughout the day as the brands sent out more tweets before making the final product announcements. Twitter remains an effective platform for brands with large followings as well as advertisers, as it's sold more ads despite seeing slower user growth.

As Twitter focuses on lifting profits, the social media platform has produced some noticeable results for brands. Frozen meal brand Lean Cuisine saw a return on investment (ROI) of $5.70 after running its #ItAll campaign on Twitter while frozen pizza brand DiGiorno had a $4.95 ROI with a campaign that used Twitter's Periscope service, Chris Padgett, Nestlé's VP of marketing and head of digital, said last week at Advertising Week. Twitter provided the highest ROI among social channels for both Lean Cuisine and DiGiorno.

Mondelez International's Oreo brand has previously run successful social media and mobile campaigns to engage viewers in creative ways. Oreo this year introduced a mobile scavenger hunt that gave players clues on where to find hidden virtual cookies in everyday objects, then used image-recognition technology to confirm the player found the digital Oreo that was overlaid on the real world via a smartphone.

Dunkin' also has been quite active in extending its service through mobile platforms to reach on-the-go customers and develop loyalty with its DD Perks app. As part of its effort to reach mobile users, Dunkin' Brands announced a multiyear deal with mobile wallet provider CardFree for a perpetual license to the software for building and operating the breakfast chain's mobile ordering and payment platform in the U.S.