Dreyer’s/Edy’s American Idol

CHALLENGE
Broaden appeal of Slow Churned Light ice cream to increase penetration and jump-start sales to get ahead of the critical summer season.

SOLUTION
Driven by the insight that families often enjoy ice cream as a shared experience around a specific rallying point, such as watching television together, we crafted a strategic partnership with the #1 rated show, ‘American Idol’. Then we developed a highly integrated marketing communications program — digital, event marketing, in-store merchandising, PR and a consumer sweepstakes.

The microsite reinforced the key attributes of ‘Idol’, allowing consumers to vote for a favorite flavor to make it a permanent addition to the line-up. We created personalities and theme songs for all five limited editions. Each vote cast was another entry into a national sweepstakes for the chance to win tickets to the season finale or one of 10 regional backyard concerts with a special guest, ‘Idol’ finalist Ace Young.

Building on the successful momentum, the program expanded the following year into two tours, with finalists Melinda Dolittle and Chris Richardson, in double the number of regional markets.

RESULTS

The program attracted more than 1.2M incremental households into the Slow Churned brand franchise.
The microsite garnered more than 4,000,000 online page views and 600,000 votes cast, as well as facilitated a PR initiative that yielded over 84M impressions.
Dreyer's/Edy's experienced unprecedented sales success, achieving a 407% increase in YOY sales.