Krispy Kreme is marketing its leap into delivery with free doughnuts for a select few: the parents, doctors and nurses delivering babies on Leap Day.
The chain is offering to ferry five dozen doughnuts to any hospital within 10 miles of a Krispy Kreme shop, but only if families or maternity ward staff post about the special delivery on social media, citing the hospital, tagging Krispy Kreme and including the hashtag #KrispyKremeSpecialDelivery. Krispy Kreme will be monitoring social media searching for such posts. Chief Marketing Officer Dave Skena says Krispy Kreme is using paid and earned media to promote its idea.
Lay’s, meanwhile, has its own social-media effort to help people born on Leap Day celebrate. “Leaplings” who visit the brand’s Facebook page on Feb. 28 and comment on a post about Leap Day can win free Lay’s potato chips, according to Frito-Lay North America.
Krispy Kreme and Lay’s are likely to be joined by other marketers trying to stand out on Leap Day, the additional day in February that comes every four years and this year falls on Saturday. In 2016, McDonald’s and Zappos were among the marketers with Leap Day campaigns.
At Krispy Kreme, the idea came about as the chain realized that it would have delivery ready to go from nearly all of its roughly 380 shops across 42 U.S. states by the end of the month. Krispy Kreme began testing delivery in 2018, but until now hasn’t really promoted the service, which is handled by DoorDash and currently accounts for a low-single-digit percentage of sales, said Skena.
Krispy Kreme works to generate buzz with limited traditional marketing and lots of social posts about its products. It began selling two limited-time Butterfinger doughnuts this month following the addition of miniature doughnuts in January. Krispy Kreme shops in Australia are currently selling doughnuts and a milkshake based on the Adult Swim show “Rick and Morty,” generating buzz and earned media back in the U.S.
“We want to do things that are so compelling that people want to tell our stories,” said Skena, who said he received texts from friends in the U.S. about the tie-in with the Adult Swim show.
No, the donuts aren’t available here. “We do not currently have plans for that. We’ll see how the promotion goes in Australia. It’s a great show, and we do love pop culture moments,” said Skena.
Krispy Kreme works with Omnicom Group’s FleishmanHillard on creative and public relations.