I participated in an Influencer Activation on behalf of Influence Central for Dunkin’ Brands. I received a promotional item to thank me for my participation.
I’m participating in the Elf For Health challenge this month – though not necessarily being great about doing the task that’s specific to each day. Last week, one of our tasks was to unsubscribe from email listservs that we don’t read, and while I originally thought I was good on that front, Cyber Monday helped me find a bunch more retailers that I realized I’ve just been deleting instead of taking the extra step to unsubscribe from. No more! I think I’ve gotten rid of at least twenty subscriptions by being pretty ruthless about what I want regularly coming to my inbox.
As a result of both my unsubscribing and my inbox filters, I find it really easy to see the most important things in my inbox. However, that doesn’t mean that I don’t read anything “just for fun”! I thoroughly enjoy the light-hearted Someecards and Thrillist newsletters, which usually have some funny and interesting articles. In today’s edition of Thrillist, they linked to 22 Things You’ve Definitely Eaten If You Grew Up in New England, which was hilarious. (Okay, so I grew up in New York, which is technically mid-Atlantic, but a lot of them still applied.) A massive Friendly’s sundae was what I ate after my first marathon, and Polar Orange Dry was absolutely my favorite soda as a kid – it makes me really sad that nowhere in Colorado seems to carry Polar Seltzer, which is the best 🙁
However, one thing that I was really surprised was missing from that list was Dunkin’ Donuts. Sure, it’s a nationwide chain, but people in the Northeast have a special love for “Dunks”, and it’s something that was always kind of a special treat my whole life. As a little kid, I remember my mom taking me to the Dunkin’ Donuts on Wolf Road for a special evening treat of a Bavarian cream donut after dinner. As a teenager, my friends and I would get the bus driver to let us off at the Dunkin’ Donuts on the corner of Western Ave when it was nice out, and we’d buy Strawberry Coolattas and then sip the cool treat on the way home. And in college, my friend Kelli was obsessed with Dunkaccinos, and would occasionally drive the 40 minutes to Cortland, the nearest town that had a Dunkin’ Donuts, just to get one. Today, I always hit up the Dunkin’ Donuts at Denver Airport when I’m traveling – I love their flavored coffees to get me through a long stretch between 4am breakfast and 12pm lunch wherever I’m going! My favorite is the blueberry, but I’ll sometimes ask them to do half blueberry syrup and half vanilla or hazelnut syrup. You can make a ton of different combinations, and it’s a lot healthier than having an actual sweet treat.
Since I’ve been patronizing Dunkin’ Donuts for years, I was really excited to learn about their new reward program that I hadn’t previously noticed in stores. In January, Dunkin’ Donuts launched their DD Perks® Rewards program to reward their loyal customers and give you points for each purchase that are good toward free Dunkin’ Donuts beverages. I’ve gotten very used to rewards programs for hotels and flights when I travel, so I love when restaurants create similar programs to reward their loyal customers. Plus, with Dunkin’ Donuts locations all over the country, I can get rewarded no matter where I am, rather than having to sign up for a million loyalty programs!
With DD Perks, guests earn five points for every dollar; every 200 points gets you a free beverage of their choice – so basically, a free drink for every $40 you spend. If you’re a coffee/donut regular, that won’t take long! In addition to offering free drinks, the DD Perks program also notes your purchases and offers you targeted deals. I know there are paranoid people who worry about giving too much personal information away, but I am more than happy for Dunkin’ Donuts to know what kind of coffee and donuts I like if it means that I’ll get some deals on future purchases of those favorites 🙂
Another thing that is really awesome about DD Perks is that the mobile app allows you to load up a gift card and then pay with the app on your phone. This is amazing for runners, because it means all you need to carry is your phone in order to stop in for a post-run treat. Lately I have really gotten into having a flavored latte or cappuccino after my long runs – the milk gives me a bit of protein for recovery, the coffee wakes me up so I can make it through the rest of the day/night without a nap, and the flavored syrup is a nice little indulgent reward after a good effort 🙂 My running group usually goes for coffee after our Saturday morning runs, and having a mobile pay app would make it really convenient to not have to go to my car for my wallet in between. Particularly since Dunkin’ Donuts makes my favorite coffee, I’m excited that they now have that capability!
Finally, I have some exciting news for any of you who don’t yet have a DD Perks account. The regular registration process awards you a free medium beverage just for signing up. However, if you sign up for the loyalty program and activate a DD card by this Friday December 5th using promo code “BLOG“, you’ll also get a free $5 added to your card! (You can get a card automatically sent to your Dunkin’ Mobile App when you enroll at ddperks.com directly.) I went through the registration process this morning and it’s pretty easy; just note that you don’t put the promo code in until almost the last step, when you’re inputting your DD card number to link it to your loyalty account. But hurry up and do it before Friday, or the extra $5 BLOG bonus goes away!
Enjoy your free coffee, and let me know what your favorite flavor combos are! My long run is tomorrow morning before work and I’d love to reward myself with a fun new drink afterward 🙂
Disclaimer: I used the same free registration and $5 signup bonus that I described for readers, but also received a promotional item in exchange for this post. However, all opinions in this post are my own, and I really have been a Dunkin’ Donuts customer since I was a kindergartener, so I’m really psyched to get to share those memories and this great deal with all my readers!