How Unilever pioneered ice-cream home deliveries
U-Studio (Oliver Agency) shared the ‘Best use of mobile’ category at The Drum Awards for Content 2021 with its campaign for Unilever. Here, the team behind the winning entry shares the secrets of this successful project...
The challenge
2020 was a tumultuous year for many. The events of the year rippled, impacting nearly every brand in the world. But where there are challenges, there's also opportunity. With people spending more time at home facing the uncertainties of each day, we saw a way to bring comfort, smiles, and a moment of happiness to people's day-to-day lives - all through on-demand delivery of the world's most-loved ice cream brands.
Say hello to The Ice Cream Shop.
Built as a storefront across Uber Eats, Postmates, GrubHub, and DoorDash, The Ice Cream Shop had modernity hardcoded into its DNA while bringing together Unilever's individual ice cream brands all into one place.
The launch of The Ice Cream Shop wasn’t just an effort in building a new brand; we were also pioneering a new category. Growing awareness for this brand was an important metric, but it was vital to prove that our audience was receptive to the idea of ordering ice cream through established delivery apps. The proof had to be in our results, so sales were a key objective for the content campaign that supported the new digital storefront’s launch.
The strategy
On-demand delivery was once a luxury but now plays a critical role as an essential service for bringing home necessities. Our idea was to bring America's most loved ice cream brands to the future, and your front door, with an on-demand digital storefront. We brought this to life by developing the creative visualization of the "Fantasy Fleet," transforming the nostalgia of the ice cream truck into the future of digital delivery.
To successfully launch this new brand, The Ice Cream Shop, we began by raising awareness for the new category of ice cream delivery and owning the space with our digital Fantasy Fleet of delivery vehicles. The fun of dessert combined with the convenience of modern delivery platforms presented the opportunity to create a charmingly engaging content experience.
The Fantasy Fleet didn’t just live in our owned channels like our website and social media accounts. It became an integral part of the brand story and sat right next to our products on our storefront pages across all major delivery apps. Paid media supported the fun and excitement of delivery by bringing the Fantasy Fleet to mobile gaming through an Activision Blizzard partnership. Candy Crush players learned about our storefronts while watching videos that granted them in-game rewards. Everywhere these imaginative vehicles went, the recipients of the delivery were bound to have a smile on their face.
In addition to low awareness, the brand also had to conquer the misconceived notion that products would be melted upon delivery. A “no melt guarantee” solidified that message as the campaign rolled out. With all of that in place, we reassured consumers that ordering ice cream for delivery was already a process they were familiar with. By partnering with established food delivery services, consumers everywhere were now able to order ice cream with just a tap of an app, already on their devices.
The results
With a total media buy of approximately $3 million – including social media, digital display advertising and in-app promotion within the delivery platform – we sold over 700 pints per hour from March 31 through October 31, 2020. We also enabled 529,000 ice cream deliveries through our campaign period, generating $20 million in delivery-ordered sales.
By reaching a massive audience, we drove awareness and action for a new brand in a new category that translated directly into sales. What started as a new e-commerce category generated a new revenue stream for the company, making it Unilever’s most successful commerce and distribution initiative of 2020.
This project was a winner at The Drum Awards for Content 2021. Click here to find out which of The Drum Awards are currently open for entry.
Content created with:
OLIVER
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