Ben & Jerry’s and Target: Together for a Sweet Cause
Best Sampling Program or Trial Recruitment
Agency: MRA experiential tours & equipment; Rock and Rain
Campaign: Together for a Sweet Cause
Client: Ben & Jerry’s and Target
Together, Target and Ben & Jerry’s have donated millions of hours of time giving back to local communities. Their combined passion for volunteerism and community outreach created the perfect opportunity for collaboration. The brands decided to partner in developing an in-market event tied to volunteerism.
They partnered with VolunteerMatch.org, a website that connects volunteers with causes. To publicize the effort, they capitalized on the growing popularity of the ‘Food Truck’ craze, creating an old fashioned ice cream parlor using a 53’ tractor trailer that toured New York and Los Angeles giving away samples of exclusive flavors with store coupons wrapped with a volunteerism message.
The ice cream shop had yellow and white awnings. White picket fences created an organized, line-up that included signs saying, ‘Ice Cream Lane’, ‘Sweet Treat Blvd’, cloud-shaped signs advertising ‘Free’, and ‘It’s Ice Cream Time’ with ‘Target Red’ colored clocks. Fresh flowers dotting the fences in red Target-logoed pots. Target’s mascot, Bullseye, and the Ben & Jerry’s cow, greeted people.
Inside, five glass top chest freezers completed the look of an old vintage ice cream parlor. Two vending windows spanned 14 feet each and had eight serving stations. The interior included vintage props for display shelves, and staff wore ’50s style ice cream soda stand uniforms.
During the campaign period, a volunteer-inspired collection of ice cream flavors was created and sold exclusively at Target to further leverage the cause initiative, including Berry Voluntary, Voluntiramisu, Brownie Chew Goode, and Peanut Butter World.
Twelve brand ambassadors manning the serving stations handed out coupons and spoke to visitors about volunteerism and the opportunity to participate through volunteermatch.org/scoopitforward.
Originally planned as a one day event in 2010 in New York during Volunteer Week, the event was so successful that the truck was revived for The Los Angeles Times Festival of Books April 30 and May 1, 2011 at the University of Southern California campus.
Over three event days, 45,000 samples were given away at a rate of 200 samples every five minutes and 15,000 coupons were handed out. In addition, there was an estimated 200,000+ impressions from people on foot who did not have time to stop, as well as passing vehicle and bus traffic. The truck also received exposure as a mobile billboard driving 6,000 miles from coast to coast and back.
