Dunkin' has hired Anomaly as its creative agency of record, following a pitch that started in August. This moves the account from BBDO, which defended the account and had won the business in 2018.

The review was led by Joanne Davis Consulting, which referred comments to Dunkin'. BBDO declined to comment. Moving forward, Anomaly will have direct responsibility for national broadcast, digital video, audio, social, and out-of-home advertising development.

"We were very impressed with Anomaly’s creative insights and approach to modernize the brand ethos of 'America Runs on Dunkin’' while staying true to the brand heritage and purpose, and we are excited to partner with them to write the next chapter in the history of Dunkin’,”  Rafael Acevedo, Dunkin’s U.S. chief marketing officer, said in a statement.

Anomaly's initial work for Dunkin’ is expected to debut in 2022.

When Dunkin’ began working with BBDO as its creative agency three years ago, it ended the chain's 20-year run with Hill Holliday, which introduced the tagline "America Runs on Dunkin" in 2006 and declined to participate in the 2018 review. Later in 2018, Dunkin’ announced it was officially dropping “Donuts” from its name. 

Dunkin’, a distant No. 2 coffee chain behind Starbucks, was acquired by Inspire Brands at the end of 2020. Sandwich chain Jimmy John’s, which is also owned by Inspire, hired Anomaly as its creative agency in 2020. 

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In 2020, Dunkin’s U.S. ad spending totaled about $442 million, according to Ad Age Datacenter estimates.

With Anomaly, Jimmy John’s has moved to more of a storytelling marketing approach, enlisting Brad Garrett to play Tony Bolognavich, a self-proclaimed sandwich king afraid of Jimmy John’s encroaching on his empire. The chain also does more product-focused marketing, such as an ongoing campaign for a new “beefy black & bleu” sandwich.

This is the second significant agency move for Inspire Brands this year. In February, it selected Publicis Groupe as its media agency of record, adding more Inspire chains to the roster on which Publicis’ Zenith and Digitas already worked. Publicis created a new unit, Inspire Media Engine, to handle the account. Dunkin’ had already been working with Digitas before Inspire gave more of its media business to Publicis.

Besides Anomaly and Publicis Media, Dunkin's other agency partners include Arc, Dieste, The Lacek Group, Turner Duckworth, and MSL.

Contributing: E.J. Schultz and Jessica Wohl

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