In the lead up to summer 2020, Baskin-Robbins Australia was still reeling from the most challenging trading period in its history – one in which stores had weathered plummeting sales, multiple lockdowns in multiple states and some had been forced to close their doors for good.
Faced with the looming spectre of further lockdowns, supply chain issues, tightened consumer purse strings and a COVID-sized hole in their summer budget, they needed a low-risk, high-return campaign strategy that would revive flagging sales, reverse their fortunes and bring customers flocking back.
So we started by asking ourselves: when it comes to ice-cream, what really drives preference and conversation? The answer was clear: flavours. We all have a go-to flavour that never disappoints, as well as flavours we detest above all else. What’s more, we all have passionate opinions on which flavours go together.
Point is, flavours matter. A lot. So what better way to engage with customers past, present and future than via a campaign that heroes flavour experimentation? No fancy toppings, expensive brand partnerships or crazy dessert fads. Just bloody good ice-cream.
Underpinning our creative strategy was a more pragmatic consideration: we needed to sell more units. We knew that roughly 50% of customers purchase a double scoop, while the other half stick to single. Which got us thinking… what if, by championing flavour experimentation, we could give some of those single scoopers a compelling reason to trade up?
We couldn’t invent new flavours. So we did the next best thing. We rebranded the humble double scoop, empowering customers to create hundreds of new flavours in the process.
The concept was simple. By combining any two flavours instore, customers could invent and purchase their own unique “flavour slam”. So that everyone everywhere could get involved, we designed the Flavour Generator – a digital experience in which customers could browse our flavours, create a virtual Flavour Slam, name it and share it online. All of our activity, from social and digital out-of-home to instore point-of-sale and a cinema TVC, directed fans to flavourslam.com.au where they could get a scoop of the action. To incentivise social sharing, we turned it into a competition: the flavour with the most votes would win its creator free ice-cream…FOR LIFE.
To say Flavour Slam was popular is an understatement. Fans responded by flooding their social feeds with drool-worthy images of Baskin-Robbins flavour combos which in turn drove awareness of the brand’s extensive range of flavours. This, combined with user- and influencer-generated Flavour Slam content posted to our own channels, kept Baskins’ flavour range trending all summer long.
As a result, Flavour Slam became the most engaged-with campaign in Baskin-Robbins’ history. In the midst of a pandemic, Baskins went from sales slump to sales jump, exceeding their campaign sales target by 27% and welcoming more customers through the doors than the summer before (yep, that’s pre-pandemic). Most importantly, Flavour Slam delivered a phenomenal 20.75 x return-on-investment for Baskin-Robbins during one of the toughest trading environments on record.
