Dunkin Donuts, Trident Gum Turn Vine Videos Into TV Commercials

Two major brands — Dunkin Donuts and Trident Gum — tapped Vine this week to create and air new television commercials.

Dunkin Donuts ran its spot on ESPN during the network’s Monday Night Football. The first Vine-based commercial, which I missed, ran for five seconds at the end of the pregame show and reportedly showed a latte flipping a coin to signify the start of a football game. It was timed to coincide with the switch from pregame show to game coverage, and Dunkin Donuts will be repeating that plan in future ESPN Monday Night Football broadcasts, too.

Later, during the game itself, Dunkin was at it again, creating a Vine video that mimicked an actual play that happened earlier in the Philadelphia vs. Washington game. They tagged it with the #DunkinReplay hashtag and promoted it via paid tweets.

Dunkin Brands VP Scott Hudler explained to AdWeek why the company went with a Vine video rather than a standard TV commercial:

Everyone is multitasking while watching TV with their phone, tablet or laptop. A lot of times, the content on their mobile device is not related to their TV shows. We want to make sure we’re supporting our TV investment with social media that’s [relevant]. It’s our job to make sure that it’s tied together to drive consumer engagement.

Also this week, Trident Gum sourced a couple of Vine’s most popular video makers for a new TV spot that is airing on the Fuse cable network 100 times over the next two weeks. The ad is pretty basic — it just shows musicians Nicholas Megalis and Rudy Mancuso singing about gum.

What’s interesting about the companies’ decision to use Vine is the time limit, especially as compared to Instagram. Vine videos are limited to six seconds, while Instagram videos can be 15 seconds long. Many national (and local) advertisers already have existing 15-second commercial inventories they could use both on TV and Instagram. But this week, at least, Dunkin Donuts and Trident chose Vine’s shorter videos.

Trident and Dunkin Donuts aren’t the only big brands sourcing social video for TV commercials. As we reported in July, Nissan Motors is looking to both Vine and Instagram for video that’s destined to be turned into a TV commercial.