Green Bay Packers' doughnut vending machine new game-day perk for fans
GREEN BAY – It's been said that everything is better with doughnuts, even, it seems, the Green Bay Packers.
Tucked away on the far side of the Lambeau Field Atrium is a squarish-looking structure with a big sign that says "Free Donuts!," perhaps the most efficiently descriptive advertising possible, as if the giant pictures of colorful doughnuts on the side of the apparatus weren't enough.
The Packers unveiled the "Donut House," a doughnut vending machine, on New Year's Day, two hours before the game against the Minnesota Vikings. The doughnuts, hundreds of them provided by Packers sponsor Kwik Trip, are that company's signature Glazers.
The doughnuts are free, but not without an investment. To get one, fans must be members of the Packers Perks program. Technology being what it is, fans who are not members can register on site, using their phones, in something less than two minutes. Even a few Vikings fans signed up for the Packers Perks program so they could cadge a doughnut. Given the Packers eventual 41-17 drubbing of the Vikings, it was no doubt the best part of their day.
"We were looking for a way to get people to sign up for the loyalty program and for a way to reward current members," said Haylee Helmle, Packers fan engagement manager.
There doesn't seem to be a hole in their reasoning. The doughnuts were gone in a little over an hour and a half, and it likely took that long because it was new.
"We had a line that was pretty deep," Helmle said.
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To be fair, the machine is more Flintstones than Star Trek. There is, in fact, a person at the heart of the mechanism loading doughnuts onto the turnstiles, however, sensors in the turnstiles check for weight and size before they'll spin out the 260 calories of sugary goodness. And, as mentioned, on-site registration is picked up almost instantly by the dispenser software. To get a doughnut, fans enter their Packers Perks I.D. on a keyboard on the side of the Donut House.
The doughnuts come fresh from Kwik Trip on the morning of the game. The Glazers are made in Kwik Trip's bakery in La Crosse. According to the company's website, Kwik Trip bakes approximately 24,000 Glazers an hour or about 400 every minute.
Helmle and Joan Malcheski, Packers director of brand and marketing, raised the idea of the Donut House in August. Working with Wild Blue Technologies and SessionM, their loyalty program partner, they designed and built the Donut House in time for the Vikings game. It takes four members from the fan engagement department to staff the operation.
The Donut House will be in place Sunday for the Detroit Lions game and return again next season, starting with Family Night.
Contact Richard Ryman at rryman@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @RichRymanPG, on Instagram at @rrymanPG or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/RichardRymanPG/.
This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Green Bay Packers' doughnut vending machine new game-day perk for fans
