While Dunkin’ has maintained a sponsorship of the NHL for a few years, this year it was important that the partnership feel natural to the consumer. Every major sporting event ends up plastered with logos, and often they feel like a transparent effort to get branding in front of consumers’ eyes. For this project, we wanted to highlight how Dunkin’ is the most natural and undeniable partner for the NHL.

The problem with running ads during sports games is that the ads are a break in the action, when viewers can safely look away without missing any of the game. We needed to capture fans’ attention when we actually had it to remind them that Dunkin’ is the official coffee of NHL hockey. So we asked ourselves, “What’s the one moment when fans are at their most attentive during hockey games?” The fights. So we tailored a spot to run screen in screen when a player is being sent to the penalty box for fighting, ensuring that we’d have fans’ attention for our spot.

Ice hockey is lightning fast and physically rough, and has one of the highest number of upsets per season—and true hockey fans relish the moments that bring this chaos to life. The Dunkin’ brand strategy is to show how our coffees and sweet treats help consumers refill their optimism. For a sport that’s so intense, both physically and emotionally, we wanted to show hockey fans how we’re there for every turn in the game, so much so that we’re essentially part of the game. And it’s not such an odd thought; both hockey fans and Dunkin’ consumers are clustered in similar parts of the country.

This thinking is what led us to the campaign platform of Where there’s hockey, there’s Dunkin’.

We chose one of the fiercest players in the game, a guy who we knew would spend a lot of time in the penalty box—Bruin’s All-Star David Pastrnak—and created a spot that showed him entering the penalty box only [only = OK?] to find a tiny Dunkin’. Without missing a beat, he orders a cold brew coffee, then takes a seat. The spot was set up to sync with the moment Pastrnak entered the box for real during a game. Right when he actually entered, screen in screen, our spot would play, making it look as though it was happening for real.

The spot managed to exceed all of our goals and benchmarks, helping to cement Dunkin’ as an integral part of the NHL, and not just another corporate sponsor.

Memorability at 75% (30% above the competitive norm)

Brand Linkage at 75% (13% above the competitive norm)

Purchase Intent at 58% (8% above the competitive norm)