Dive Brief:

• For Valentine’s Day, Dunkin’ Donuts is taking a multi-channel approach with a photo contest on Instagram, an iMessage card builder, an emoji keyboard on its app, two Snapchat geofilters and a Facebook Live music performance by Us The Duo per a company press release.
• The iMessage card builder allows users to create custom Valentine’s Day cards with a Dunkin’ Donuts themed sticker, and other iMessage users can respond to the card and send one back.
• The “Dunkin’ Love” Instagram photo contest asks fans to share how the baked goods and coffee chain is part of their love story via the hashtap #DunkinLoveContest with a grand prize winner getting a year’s worth of coffee and donuts as well as $2,500.

Dive Insight:

For this Valentine’s Day effort Dunkin’ Donuts is tapping a variety of interesting social media and mobile elements ranging from the straightforward Instagram contest, reaching out on Snapchat with geofilters and even getting into the live streaming video game with the Facebook Live musical performance.

The iMessage card builder is interesting because, after being overlooked in favor of Facebook’s Messenger app for marketing purposes, Apple’s iMessage has been getting more attention lately after it beefed up its marketing tools. Recently McDonald’s made the app the only messaging element of its secret sauce giveaway promotion that also included live streams on Facebook Live, Instagram and Twitter.

One reason marketers took to Messenger was its open API that provides opportunities for brands. The resurgence of iMessage can possibly be tied back to news from last September when Apple announced it was launching an app store for the iMessage app, similarly giving brands marketing opportunities on that platform with custom apps providing direct access to iMessage users. Messaging is an important way for marketers to reach younger consumers with more organic engagement opportunities. IMessage on iPhones could provide a competitive advantage in that the messaging platform is native, so users don't have to download a separate app.