The fast food world has embraced our industry more and more over the past four years, from Dunkin‘s partnership with Charli D’Amelio to the MrBeast x Zaxby’s collab to Chipotle and Shake Shack launching menu items inspired by TikTokers’ hacks.
Dunkin’ has been particularly zeroed in on content creators, and was possibly the first big fast food brand to welcome them onto its menu. When it launched The Charli in 2020, it sold hundreds of thousands of D’Amelio-branded drinks in just five days, and saw a 57% spike in app downloads.
That collab clearly left an impression, because not only did it continue working with Charli, but last month, it announced food creator Nick DiGiovanni and streamer SypherPK are some of its first-ever “Dunkin’Terns,” aka brand ambassadors whose goal is to “put a Dunkin’ Iced beverage in every hand this summer with a winning combination of great-tasting cold drinks and unexpected collaborations.”
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DiGiovanni’s manager Zach Blank tells us Dunkin’ launched the Dunkin’Terns program in partnership with Ben Affleck and Matt Damon‘s company Artists Equity. Affectionately titled the “DunKings,” Affleck, Damon, and former NFL champ Tom Brady are three of Dunkin’s biggest partners, and–alongside D’Amelio and Ice Spice–are the only ones to have had their own items on the brand’s menu.
Until now.
DiGiovanni–who has 18 million subscribers on YouTube and 13 million followers on TikTok–just unveiled his contribution to Dunkin’s “a beverage in every hand” goal: four new drinks that are available at every Dunkin’ location in the U.S. for the next 30 days.
Blank tells us this menu drop “has been about a year in the making,” built off previous work DiGiovanni did with Dunkin’, including “a bunch of activations,” a TV commercial, and branded content across DiGiovanni’s socials. (If you’re sharp-eyed, you can even catch a teaser for his Dunkin’ menu in an Instagram video from this past February.)
“It’s something that Nick was always really excited about, Nick being from the Boston area and Dunkin’ being a Boston brand,” Blank says. “It blossomed into this Boston-centric partnership.”
DiGiovanni’s drinks were formulated in collaboration with Dunkin’ chef Dan Cole, and include a Blueberry Donut Iced Coffee with Sweet Cold Foam, a Caramel Coconut Cream Iced Coffee, a Mocha Vanilla Iced Coffee, and a Caramel Almondmilk Iced Coffee.
Like it did with the D’Amelio collab, Dunkin’ is pushing people to order DiGiovanni’s creations on its app.
We don’t know if there’ll be more menu items coming from DiGiovanni, but we do know the next creator-centric thing to watch for from the Dunkin’Terns is SypherPK’s collab, where he’ll work with both Dunkin’ and Twitch Rivals “to bring SPARKD’ Energy by Dunkin’ into the virtual world by creating a custom competitive gaming arena with Oni Studios later this summer,” Dunkin’ says.
