Yahooing with Dunkin’ Donuts

I am a huge fan of Dunkin’ Donuts. The worst thing about moving from the East Coast to the Bay Area is losing access to my favorite coffee chain. Starbucks and Peets don’t measure up, imho, to Dunkin’ Donuts. (Thanks to mail-order beans, we serve Dunkin’ Donuts coffee exclusively here at BZ Media West.)

Dunkin’ Donuts used to be in the Bay Area, of course. 20 years ago, I remember visiting a couple of locations in San Jose. There were franchises in places like Sacramento, Los Angeles and Las Vegas. Now, they’re all gone.

However, Dunkin’ Donuts, under its new owners — Bain Capital, the Carlyle Group and Thomas Lee Patners — is getting more aggressive with partnerships and promoting the brand. The most recent is a partnership with Yahoo, described as:

Through this partnership, Yahoo! will create two new Dunkin’ Donuts-branded video programs, as well as a Dunkin’ Donuts community web site. The first program from this partnership is the “Yahoo! Sports Minute,” a daily video summary of the biggest sports stories, and is now available to users. “Good Morning Yahoo!,” a unique morning video news program, and the “Dunkin’ Lounge” social community will launch later this spring. The agreement represents the first time Yahoo! has worked with an advertising partner to develop original content initiatives in multiple categories.

Now, how about they open a franchise next to Yahoo’s headquarters in Sunnyvale? It’s worth the trip!