Dairy Queen, which will celebrate 70 years as a brand and 25 years of the Blizzard next year, has had time to get to know its customers. A major key to the 5,600-plus-unit chain’s success, said chief brand officer Michael Keller, has been Dairy Queen’s ability to build its effective marketing campaigns around those consumer insights.
“We have to try to be as clever, scrappy, disciplined and integrated as we can be,” Keller said. “We’re not so resource-rich that we can just spray it around.”
DQ’s television spots, focused on families’ experiences enjoying the chain’s frozen treats, were among the most well-liked restaurant industry commercials last year, according to Nielsen IAG. Minneapolis-based Dairy Queen is broadening its media reach while restarting national TV ads for its sales-driving Sweet Deals value menu, which launched in January. The menu helped drive same-store sales up five percent in the first quarter.
How do you approach developing your well-liked TV commercials?
There’s lots of buzz around emotional connections these days, and once you’ve bonded with your customers, that’s a competitive advantage.
Fortunately for Dairy Queen, we have a lot of accumulated good will. We’ve tried to capture a bit more of those wonderful moments of life that could just as easily unfold at Dairy Queen, and we try to play that back to our customers. At any Dairy Queen in North America, you’ll find parents with their kids. We try to capture a little bit of that, but with a few twists, not so [much] that it makes the commercials sappy, but funny and memorable.
BONUS POINT “TV ads that are simple, believable and relevant are highly effective, and that’s exactly what Dairy Queen has going on right now.”—Dan Dahlen, executive vice president, Nielsen AIG, New York
What big goals have your marketing campaigns accomplished?
It’s amazing how we’ve sustained, without media support in April, the level of success for Sweet Deals. The ad campaign raised awareness, we got trial, and we’re getting repeat business.
Another thing for us is in the digital domain. Our Blizzard Fan Club just reached more than 2 million members, we’ve launched a corporate blog, and we had a Sweet Deals online game, and it was amazing how quickly we got as many plays as we did. Most brands now have to live in three different worlds: the brick-and-mortar store, the traditional media and now these digital vehicles that have come into their own.
How important will marketing be to your 70th anniversary and the Blizzard’s 25th birthday?
Anniversaries are always a little tricky. They show you’ve been around a long time, but they can also show your age if you’re not careful and haven’t stayed relevant. We’re going to have a variety of big events and celebrations that will happen.— [email protected]
