Dunkin’ Donuts is engaging customers via a new in-store mobile game as a way to promote new menu items.

Through Oct. 31, anyone visiting a participating Dunkin’ Donuts location in the greater Boston area will be able to play Dunkin’s challenges such as snapping pictures or answering riddles. Players will have a chance to win one of the new Dunkin’ Donuts deli sandwiches every day for an entire year.

“Dunkin’ Donuts is always looking for ways to reward our loyal guests while keeping them running throughout their busy day,” said Dave Tryder, director of interactive and relationship marketing for Dunkin’ Donuts.

“Running an engaging mobile gaming campaign resonates with the busy Dunkin’ Donuts guest on the go and is a good way to raise awareness for a new product,” he said.
 
“We’ve seen a lot of positive buzz on our social media channels such as Facebook and Twitter, and SCVNGR provides us with an innovative way to use social gaming and location-based technology to reward our fans and followers while they’re in our restaurants.”

Play it again
For the promotion, Dunkin’ Donuts teamed up with Scvngr, a mobile game app that gives players a way to check-in at local businesses, snap pictures or try a challenge to earn points and start unlocking real-world rewards.

This is Dunkin’ Donuts’ second campaign with Scvngr.

The first campaign was in March, Dunkin’ Donuts customers in the greater Boston area were invited to play challenges on Scvngr featuring Dunkin’ Donuts iced coffee and Boston sports teams.

Dunkin’ Donuts decided to run a second campaign on Scvngr based on the success of that first effort.

“Scvngr’s scriptable gaming platform allowed Dunkin’ Donuts to augment their promotion of new sandwich offerings with customer fun,” said Chris Mahl, senior vice president and chief brand alchemist for Scvngr, Cambridge, MA.

“As customers do quick challenges, like pretending to take a bite of a giant sandwich featured in Dunkin’ Donuts’ window signage, they not only tie the product to a fun experience, but they are compelled to share that content out to their friends, multiplying the reach of the campaign several times over,” he said.

In the new game promoting new chicken and tuna salad sandwiches, players can unlock limited-edition badges by participating in the game. Players who unlock the Dunkin’ Regular badge will earn one entry for the chance to win free deli sandwiches while those who unlock the Dunkin’ Fanatic badge will earn three entries.

The challenges include taking a photo of someone next to a poster showing one of the new sandwiches.

Dunkin’ Donuts customers can visit the Dunkin’ Donuts profile page on Scvngr for a map of participating locations.

The Scvngr app is available for free at the Android Market or Apple App Store.

The Scvngr campaign lets Dunkin’ Donuts reward customers for being loyal.

Scvngr reports that players in restaurant-based brand campaigns do an average of 7 challenges and spend between 10 and 12 minutes interacting with the brand.

“With mobile, we’re leveraging Foursquare, Facebook and SCVNGR at the national and/or local levels to compliment our traditional mobile efforts,” Mr. Tryder said.

Final Take
Chantal Tode is associate editor on Mobile Commerce Daily, New York