Magnum Ice Cream is encouraging female pleasure seekers to indulge this summer.
The effort, the first from the Unilever-owned brand since choosing KBS as its Canadian agency of record late last year, is designed to build brand awareness and promote two new products: the Magnum Double Peanut Butter Bar, a decadent treat composed of peanut butter ice cream, Belgium chocolate and peanut butter sauce, and a mini version of the brand’s popular Double Chocolate bar.
“Discover Magnum Chocolate Pleasure” officially kicked off June 16 with a sampling event at the intersection of Bloor and Church in downtown Toronto. Promoted tweets about the event — which saw the brand give out 9,000 samples — generated more than 110,000 impressions and had an engagement rate of 9%.
The campaign, targeted to women 30-35, is all about gratification and finding delight in the simple, everyday things, said Maura Cowan, marketing manager for Magnum. The sampling events in particular, are also a way for the brand to promote its quality ingredients and commitment to the environment (both its Belgium chocolate and vanilla are 100% rainforest alliance certified).
“Magnum is all about indulging in moments of pleasure every day,” Cowan said. “It’s about our chocolate credentials, and showing consumers…what the product is about, talking about our ingredients, and bringing pleasure to people in their everyday.”
Magnum has been working to position itself as a luxury dessert brand for the past few years, beginning in 2013 when it set up the “Pleasure Store,” a pop-up shop in Toronto’s upscale Yorkville neighbourhood.
The brand, which cites Haagen Dazs as its main competitor, has seen year-to-date growth of 22%, a sign that its high-end positioning is working, Cowan added.
Two national TV spots are currently airing. One features the brand’s most popular bar, the Double Caramel, while the other focuses on the new Double Peanut Butter. More sampling events are planned for Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal this summer, and Magnum has partnered with traffic and navigation app Waze to deliver pop-up ads to gridlocked consumers. “Discover Magnum Chocolate Pleasure” is also being supported by digital, OOH and social.
Most elements of the campaign will run until the end of August. The same creative is running in Quebec.
Mindshare handled the media buy, while Harbinger managed PR.
