Posted by Lafeea Watson, Public Relations Manager, Krispy Kreme
Editor's note: Today’s post comes from Lafeea Watson at Krispy Kreme, a global retailer of sweet treats with over 875 shops in more than 20 countries around the world. This holiday season, Krispy Kreme has chosen Chromebooks to power an in-store holiday campaign, connecting customers around the world to toast to the holidays with their coffee and doughnut, face to face. Learn more about how you can use built-in Google Apps with Chromebooks.
When Vernon Rudolph opened Krispy Kreme back in 1937 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, it was a wholesale bakery that sold doughnuts to local grocery stores. The scent of its fresh-baked doughnuts, however, was too good for passers-by to ignore, and Rudolph was faced with request after request to let people buy them on the spot. He cut a hole in the wall, allowing him to serve eager his fans directly on the sidewalk, and Krispy Kreme as we know it was born.
We’re just as dedicated to delighting our customers and giving them even more reasons to come by beyond our tasty treats today. This year, working with our creative partners at
VML, we created a “
Joy Goes Around Holiday Hangout” interactive experience so customers can have conversations with people in 16 countries through
Hangouts and
Chromebooks in 17 of our retail stores.
The Joy Goes Around Holiday campaign is an interactive in-shop experience that allows our guests at participating locations around the world to toast to the holidays through customized Krispy Kreme Hangouts. We are also creating video of customers getting into the holiday spirit that they can then share with others over social media channels.
We decided to use Chromebooks, because they are easy to set up, secure and scalable. They offer remote management via the Chrome management console, which means an IT admin in one office can set them all up regardless of where they were located. That leaves staff in the stores free to focus on serving customers food and beverages instead of doing IT support. We also wanted to make sure the Chromebooks were used just for these Hangouts, and not visiting websites that could be malicious. Chromebooks allows us to control and limit their use. The combination is highly scalable; it can be used in any number of locations to build a collective brand experience. It’s fun to have a face-to-face conversation with someone on the other side of the world with just a few clicks.
We’re thrilled that we’re helping people share a cup of coffee and an Original Glazed doughnut as if they were sitting across the table from each other. With Chromebooks and Google Hangouts, we’re bringing our global community closer together. We’re celebrating the things we have in common and the experiences that bring us joy.
