2009 Silver Anvil Award of Excellence Winner Marketing Consumer Products Food & NonAlcoholic Beverages

The Hagen-Dazs brand recognized that it was an iconic, strong brand that had lost relevance with its consumers, and was looking for a way to highlight its all-natural positioning that would resonate. We were looking for a different way to crack the nut! The goal: to re-ignite consumer passion and boost annual sales growth by at least 1% and media impressions by 25% in 2008. At the essence of the brand is its commitment to all-natural ingredients. We uncovered an obscure problem, disappearing honey bees (referred to as Colony Collapse Disorder), threatening the existence of 40% of HDs natural ingredients. HD saw a unique opportunity to be the champion of an under-reported but critical cause. HD Loves HB was born to connect with consumers in an authentic way, be first to put the cause on consumers radar in a major way, and underscore HDs all natural brand value proposition by inextricably linking the important relationship between honey bees and its ice cream. HD created a new flavor in honor of the honey bees, placed a captivating bee logo on all products threatened by these pollinators, launched a new consumer education website, and produced print and TV advertising. But the biggest marketing lever of all for the campaign was public relations. The brand set the tone for the entire campaign, formed an expert advisory board, directed significant donation funds towards meaningful research and created an avenue for consumers in mass numbers to plant bee-friendly habitats to help save the bees. The campaign exceeded all management expectations in getting consumers, retail sales and media buzzing. HD experienced the highest sales increase in 12 months, garnered 277+ million impressions with $1.5 million in advertising equivalencies and increased consumer brand advocacy to 69%, the highest level among 19 different ice cream brands measured.

Strategies

Overall, the strategy seemed to be to create a positive image and strong connection with consumers of the Hagen-Dazs brand by supporting the honey bee population.

Hagen-Dazss public relations team took advantage of clear communication and quality internal relations when it listened to employees in their ad department who expressed concern about CCD after recognizing the trending blog topic.

The Hagen-Dazs Loves Honey Bees campaign was launched in 2007 with authority. Several goals were established: Increase revenue growth by more than 1% in a year, increase awareness of the honey bee decline, increase media impressions on the brand by 25%, convince people to plant bee friendly seeds, increase new visitors to the website helpthehoneybees.com and increase consumer recommendations of their brand.

$250,000 was donated to Penn State University and the University of California, Davis to support research. $10,000 was donated to The Pollinator Partnership. Creation of the Bee Board included a group of expert spokespeople including the head of the CCD Working Group, a bee specialist from PSU, a horticulture professor and bee garden expert from PSU, an experienced bee breeder/geneticist from UCD, Eric Mussen (Beekeeper of the year, 2006), an entomologist from UCD, Randy Oliver and David Hackenberg (both experienced beekeepers).

Launch of a new flavor of ice-cream called vanilla honey bee, a new logo printed on honey bee dependent flavors, information about CCD printed under the lids and a vow to donate a portion of sales to CCD research.

Announcement of the campaign at a key industry conference. Media launch of the brands involvement including national media such as newsprint, broadcast, radio, magazines, and websites.

Online outreach including Craigslist and Meetup.com to promote planting of at least one million bee friendly seeds. Seed packets labeled HD loves HB were distributed to supporters.

Ice cream social on Capital Hill during national Pollinator Week which resulted in more news coverage and positive publicity. Consequences

Sales increased by 5.2% that year. The number of media impressions that resulted was worth about $1.5 million in advertising. The brand was strongly associated with support of the bee population by the public. More than 1,200,000 bee friendly seeds were distributed (and potentially planted). Helpthehoneybees.com received 469,798 unique visitors. Hagen-Dazs experienced a 13% increase in its brand advocacy rating, exceeding its competitors. Multiple awards were granted for public relations including a gold Cannes Lion for Corporate Responsibility and Environmental Issues. Comments

Hagen-Dazs has shown amazing philanthropy by engaging in a campaign to support awareness of CCD. I have been aware of CCD for years now and wonder if I originally learned about it through these efforts. I remember visiting helpthehoneybees.com for the first time years ago. I have to say however, I did not associate Hagen-Dazs with this problem until this assignment came along. So, their efforts did not affect me personally. As a Buddhist and environmentalist, I believe in compassion for all sentient beings and I understand the interconnectedness of all life. I support the honey bee population by planting wildflowers as what you might call a guerilla gardener, supporting flower farmers by buying cut flowers as often as possible, and will now give myself permission to eat more Hagen-Dazs ice-cream.