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Ben & Jerry’s Scoop Truck
May 31, 2011
 
Ben & Jerry’s Innovative “Summer Scoop Truck Tour” Combines Experiential Marketing with Social Media Interaction
Iconic Trucks Will be Taking Twitter Requests from Fans on Places to Visit
Burlington, Vt. – May 31, 2011— Ben & Jerry’s, a pioneer of mobile sampling tours, is reinventing the traditional tour by combining live experiential marketing with social media platforms, and giving fans an active voice in determining the tour stops. Their “Summer Scoop Truck Tour” will surprise ice cream lovers with free ice cream from its iconic Scoop Trucks in five cities across the U.S.
A trio of agency partners is working with Ben & Jerry’s to bring the promotion to life. Gigunda Group, an experiential marketing agency headquartered in Manchester, NH, is handling the execution, with specific focus on planning and coordinating the tour schedule, managing the brand ambassadors, consumer messaging and activating the social media sampling on-demand plan. Edelman Digital, the digital arm of the largest, independently-owned communications firm, is leading the digital portion of the program, including the Twitter, Foursquare, Tumblr and Facebook integration. Cone, a strategy and communications agency, is responsible for the program’s public relations.
This is the second consecutive year that Ben & Jerry’s is hosting sampling on demand via Twitter requests. Last year’s program, which took place in New York and Boston in celebration of the 25th anniversary of New York Super Fudge Chunk, was wildly successful. Consumer response to social media sampling on demand was so great, blowing away all expectations and benchmarks, that Ben & Jerry’s reached out to Gigunda to build a second scoop truck and quadruple the tour.
The Ben & Jerry’s Scoop Trucks will be dishing out the brand’s most popular flavors at retailers, high-traffic locations, scheduled community events and office invasions, as well as offering “social media on demand” sampling where consumers can request visits from the truck. The Summer Scoop Truck Tour is currently taking place in Los Angeles and Miami through June 10th before moving to New York and San Francisco from June 20th to July 29th and Boston during the month of August.
“Ben & Jerry’s is very excited to be bringing our company spirit, social mission and killer flavors to our fans on both coasts,” said Jay Curley, Integrated Marketing Manager and tour ringleader at Ben & Jerry’s. “What makes this campaign so unique is that we’re having a two-way dialogue with consumers. Instead of having a tour schedule set in stone, we’re giving Ben & Jerry’s fans the opportunity to tell us where we should go.”
When the Scoop Truck stops at a location the staff will check in on Foursquare, which directly posts to Ben & Jerry’s Twitter account (@BenJerrysTruck). They will also encourage guests to check in. As the truck leaves one stop and heads to the next, brand ambassadors will tweet their next location. The team will then plan their next social media on demand sampling day based on the day’s response and delivery requests of their followers. Every day the truck will send out tweet notifications letting followers know when the truck will be in their area, and encouraging them to write back if they would like to receive a delivery.
In addition to social media sampling on demand, the Scoop Trucks will be making pre-arranged sampling appearances at retailers, as well as stopping in high-traffic locations and scheduled community events. The trucks will be offering complimentary tastings of five flavors: Bonnaroo Buzz, Late Night Snack inspired by Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, Cherry Garcia, Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough and Stephen Colbert’s AmeriCone Dream.
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