November 6, 2013,
News 
No comments
Nestlé-owned Häagen-Dazs is one of the most iconic ice cream brands in the world and has successfully connected with female consumers for over half a century.
Earlier this year, the ice cream brand decided to go back to its marketing roots and develop a social media engagement strategy that would create word-of-mouth buzz around the brand as well as the launch of its new premium product in the UK.
A key outcome for its brand managers was to increase consumer engagement on its UK Facebook page and build awareness and bookings for its new Boudoir campaign as well as engage with brand advocates on Twitter.
The Boudoir was an exclusive ‘pop-up club’ that was developed as part of the brand’s ‘It’s girl’s time’ campaign that promoted its new Mini-Cups product.
Fans of the brand could book a slot in The Boudoir for a ‘girl’s night’ that included a celeb meet-and-greet, fashion-experts, a DJ and of course tons of ice cream!
It’s clear that Häagen-Dazs understood the importance of relationship-building and how it would create a memorable experience among its desired customer segments – an important ingredient of any successful marketing campaign as explained in my recent book, High Impact Marketing That Gets Results.
A key success factor for the Häagen-Dazs brand is continued customer loyalty and its ability to fight off stiff competition from a surfeit of other premium ice cream brands including the popular Unilever-owned Magnum brand.
Outreach through appreciation serves as a powerful touch point for Häagen-Dazs and accounts for why it’s focused on a retention strategy rather than just simply going for new consumers at the expense of ignoring a loyal fan base.
“The campaign had to be driven by integrated content because it was critical to the success of the social media campaign. Integration adds to the status and worth of an organisation by creating a single voice approach. Companies often overlook integration and use a contrasting approach that includes hitching their brands to the social media bandwagon with no integration and hopes of bigger bottom-lines,” observes Shelley Greene, a US-based PR expert.
The development of the Facebook app was designed to reach its customer segments as well as evolve as the campaign grew and content centred on the activities in The Boudoir.
What Häagen-Dazs recognised was it was important to satisfy the psychological or higher-purpose needs of its customers and this correlated with how those customers felt about the brand.
Häagen Dazs also used tactical Facebook advertising based on real-time activity in the community to generate maximum page ‘likes,’ engagement and bookings.
The results were equally impressive – Häagen-Dazs increased customer engagement on its Facebook page by over 400% in the first month of the campaign, with the volume of fans engaging with the brand increasing by 324%, according to its social media agency Qube Media.
In summary, the Facebook campaign generated word-of-mouth exposure to a wider online audience and Häagen-Dazs used real-time data analysis to track audience engagement.
Insight on what worked and replication of those marketing tactics drove the campaign and amplified the success it has achieved to date.
Recent Comments