Artists Equity
Can a sequel become a winning campaign at Cannes Lions?
Brave Dog Assignment:
Ben Affleck’s creative agency, Artists Equity, created an earned media/PR sensation with Dunkin’s 1st ever Super Bowl spot in 2023 (Ben’s side gig as a Dunkin’ drive-thru employee). The new brand attention was great, but Dunkin’s bigger strategic marketing shift was the untold story. The agency leaned into that initial earned media attention and created a sustained campaign featuring a spokesman role for Ben – starting with Ben + Ice Spice at the VMA’s leading into a full multi-phase build up to Super Bowl 2024. This sustained campaign was the highest profile ever mounted by Dunkin’. The agency wanted Cannes accolades and the client wanted recognition for a successful marketing transformation. It’s always hard for a sequel to win when competing against original breakthrough work. Brave Dog was asked to review the campaign, map out awards strategy options, and collaborate on developing a full awards entry campaign. All within 12 weeks of Cannes final deadline.
Dunkin’s Marketing Challenge:
Dunkin’ competes against global behemoths who have spent decades building dominant consumer mindshare for core value segments – McDonald’s owns the fast value proposition, and Starbucks owns premium taste. And yet, Dunkin’ has deeply loyal brand fans in their original Northeast franchise markets, most famously Ben Affleck (as proven by countless tabloid photos and memes). Past efforts to expand Dunkin’s business led to a strategy of a ceaseless parade of seasonal Limited Time Offers. These drove seasonal traffic, but didn’t accumulate into any positive gain in overall brand consideration. Dunkin’ wanted a brand breakthrough. Enter Ben. Then more Ben with friends. Dunkin’ and Artists Equity wanted recognition that their new strategic advertising commitments succeeded far beyond PR buzz.
The Award Challenge:
Cannes isn’t one competition, instead it is a constellation of 30 entry divisions, each with dozens of categories, and every category has specific judging criteria. Each division attracts more than 1,000 entries from all over the globe, all vying to be recognized as best in class.
One of the keys to Cannes success is targeting the division and categories that best align with the single take-away reason to choose your submission as best in class. In a real sense, a winning Cannes submission requires its own Unique Selling Proposition, a summary position of why and how this entry deserves to win in its division/category. Choosing a campaign’s best fit (division/category) requires a rigorous assessment of how a campaign’s objectives, competitive insight, strategic response to its core challenge, purposeful creative, and impactful results collectively measure up against recent winners.
The reason that a clear, targeted, and compelling awards positioning rationale is so essential? All entries must survive the initial knock-out review that cull +80% of entries (online panels spend approximately 5- 10 mins scoring each initial entry). A memorable positioning hook, targeted and compelling 100 word summary, and strong case video are must-haves to get through this first culling round.
The Solution:
A rigorous review of the campaign went beyond the campaign summary presentation into the deeper reasons to create this Dunkin’s campaign, beyond the stated assignment in the brief. We unearthed a multi-year market share challenge that required a dramatic break to reverse years of declining consideration. The Dunkin’ campaign wasn’t simply humorous celebrity headline bait, but an essential truth about Dunkin’ brand loyalty delivered by the one guy who could authentically capture and sustain new brand attention. Brave Dog assessed that this combination of brand truth, new Go-To-Market strategy, and proven results from this campaign made this a perfect fit for the Creative Strategy division of Cannes Lions. We proved to Cannes judges that America Runs on Dunkin’ [And Ben] all the way to a Cannes win.
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