Top 5 ice cream and frozen treat campaigns to know about right now

Ad Age expanded its “Creativity Top 5” series to include new roundups of our favorite special-interest campaigns and ideas from brands. As the U.S. heads into Memorial Day weekend, the unofficial kick-off of summer, Ad Age takes a look at this season’s best ice cream and novelty campaigns.

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No. 5: Kind’s summer trip

Kind loaded a food truck with plant-based frozen treats and hit the road this week for a 10-market tour beginning in New York and winding up in Santa Monica, California, in early August. The summer-long road trip will distribute thousands of free Kind Frozen Treat Bars. There’s also summer-edition merchandise and accessories including a Kind snack pack, a hanging plant waterer, and custom stick-on nails available on its website. The tour celebrates the brand’s non-dairy frozen treat selection including a new flavor for this year, mint chocolate and almond nut.

No. 4: Indulgence you can smell

Magnum, Unilever’s premium brand of ice cream bars, is doubling down on indulgence with a new line of bars called Duets that are dipped in two kinds of chocolate—and is celebrating the launch with an equally indulgent collaboration: Chocolate-scented nail designs in polishes inspired by the new bars. Magnum’s partner in the effort is Nails.INC, a New York beauty brand, and Mei Kawajiri, a nail artist to the stars (including Dua Lipa, Barbie Ferreira and Seth Rogen) who has contributed how-tos on trendy designs using the sweet smelling, ice-creamy polishes. The polishes are available on Amazon for $7.99, and beginning in June, at a series of pop-up “Indulgence Studios” at Freehand Hotels in New York, Los Angeles and Miami.

No. 3: Ice cream meets street food

Häagen-Dazs brought its new street food-inspired City Sweets collection to life by transforming a New York bodega into an immersive, Instagrammable ice cream speakeasy. “Rose & Reuben’s Bodega,” is named for the founders of the brand and located in the Bronx, where the Häagen-Dazs brand (now owned by Froneri in the U.S.) was born. The shop featured new flavors like Dulce de Leche Churro, Black & White Cookie and Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel. The stunt was led by Cartwright, the agency behind the brand’s indulgent “That’s Dazs” campaign.

No. 2: A ‘Friendly’ reminder

Friendly’s Restaurants, the 87-year-old family restaurant chain that’s been busy rebuilding from a long series of financial woes and effects of the pandemic, is emphasizing menu improvements enacted during its two-year-old turnaround with a none-too-subtle reminder that through it all, Friendly’s is known best for its ice cream. The “Save Room for Ice Cream” campaign is the first message from a new chief marketing officer, David Ellis, and newly named agency, Erich and Kallman, and launched in late April. It features a comically intimidating waiter who delivers that message loud and clear. The campaign features nine 30- and 15-second spots airing via broadcast TV, connected TV, digital and social, as well as a handful of 6-second social spots. The campaign will also include digital and real-life manifestations of the “Save Room for Ice Cream” tag across the chain’s interior design, uniforms, and plate ware.

No. 1: Ice cream on demand

Everyone loves an ice cream truck, but who has the patience to wait all day listening for the jingle as it turns down your street—much less the dexterity to reach into a pocket for cash with one hand while holding a dripping popsicle in another? Robomart, a mobile minimart that consumers can hail in the style of Uber and shop in the style of Amazon Go, and Unilever have teamed up on a solution. They are piloting a fleet of on-demand mobile stores around Los Angeles under Unilever’s virtual store brand The Ice Cream Shop. Consumers using Robomart’s app can hail the vehicle to their location, open its doors with a swipe, select their treats from the truck’s freezers, and walk away before the treats even begin to melt. Checkout-free technology charges a customer’s stored payment when they remove an item from the vehicle. Ice Cream Shop Robomarts are stocked with treats from Unilever brands Ben & Jerry’s, Breyers, Good Humor, Magnum and Talenti. Transactions can be as quick as two minutes, Robomart officials say.