I've got a song intro in my head.

And it happens to be the exact spot Amazon has on it's sample page.

See here.

I learned something new yesterday with my Echo Dot.

Because it was the first day of summer (and the longest day of the year), places were having various "deal of the day" promotions.

So what did I find, that I tried?

Dunkin' Donuts was giving away a free Shot In The Dark 8oz coffee for the first 15,000 people that spoke to their smart device (Alexa and Google Play. Doesn't work with Siri. I tried) with the following phrase: "ASK Send me a Sample for Dunkin Shot in the Dark".

One of the catches is that you had to go to sendmeasample.net  (first) and create a free account. It looks sketchy AF because if you're reading the fine print, they're located in London, England. How am I going to get a free can of coffee from a company in the UK? Further inspection said that there are promotions both the US and UK are doing, and this site apparently is the middle man for the promotional collaborations.

Ok; I'll give it a try. What do I have to lose? More junk mail on my doorstep?

I signed up with the sample site.

The second thing I had to go into my Alexa account and enable the Sample skill set for her to be able to understand what I'm asking and get me free swag. From that point, the third thing was linking the accounts.

THEN I could request my sample. Alexa asked me if I would prefer she send me her favorite flavor ("ok") and she put the request in. The second question was wondering if I wanted to get promotions from Coca-Cola for other products, as well as rating Send Me A Sample. No, I'm not interested in getting other Coke promos (my mom subscribes to the "make sure you scan your Coke code!!!" lifestyle) and I want to see if this is legit before I rate the skill.

I didn't know Dunkies was part of the Coke family... At least that's how a lot of places are promoting the coffee chain. According to their 'About Us', they're still listed as a free standing coffee joint, so I don't know how the partnership is really formed - does Coca-Cola own some form of contractual rights with the Dunk's group, or do they just say "hey, let's get something going and see what happens"?

On a tiny side of research after the last paragraph was typed, I found that in 2017 Dunkin' and Coca-Cola teamed up and Coke is the group bringing the ready to drink version on to store shelves. So that's the pre-made drinks that you can buy in the grocery store or convenience store, not worry about stopping into a free standing coffee shop and order an iced coffee - you can go to a 7-11 and pick up a glass bottle of it instead. I think this part spawned from whatever contract the two companies had originally, for Dunkin' to sell Coke products in their stores. I vaguely remember a time when there wasn't a Coca-Cola cooler at a Dunkin' counter, but I wasn't paying much attention - I was usually going in for my #3: (plain) bagel and cream cheese with a medium hot coffee. Or just a regular iced coffee. In and out in a few minutes.

But anyway, back to the original concept of this post. I gather that once you install Send Me A Sample, you can look for their logo on other places and you can request a freebie for something. You just have to ask for it. Which is nice, I guess, but it also creates more laziness. Although, it's creative because a lot of people now have smart assistants / streaming devices, and where society is starting to become more tech forward, it makes sense that there are companies cashing in on this. It's smart promoting - one website connected to a smart device, sending a consumer a free sample of something when the product launches. You are limited to first come, first serve, and if you miss that window, you can't have it. It gets the name out to people, even if you're well familiar with it. Odds are, there will be a money saving coupon with this coffee sample when I get it. Which is good because that'll get me in a store to find it. Depending on price and taste, I very well could buy it again. Theory goes with everything else you can think of.

I guess I'll post an update when I get the drink - it said it could take a few weeks from start to finish; which is fine. Considering the company is in England, yea, they have to go through the proper channels to get products imported / exported / out correctly.

Until then....

Welcome to the 21st century???


Cheers;




See also (aka Google keyword search regarding the free coffee):
"dunkin shot in the dark free"

See also (aka Send Me A Sample Dunkin' promo):
https://www.sendmeasample.net/dunkin/