Jay Curley, the Senior Global Marketing Manager at Ben & Jerry’s, spoke with Bryan Kramer during a Purematter Substance webinar on the importance of creating authentic experiences for customers.
Ben & Jerry’s takes fun very seriously. Jerry, their co-founder, said “If it’s not fun why do it?” They are infamous for their humorous approach to flavor names- from “Chubby Hubby “to “Karamel Sutra” and my favorite—“Everything But The…”.
In our webinar, Jay revealed that Ben & Jerry’s is much more than a “fun” brand. Every campaign they launch is carefully vetted to create authentic customer experience. They see social media as a way to bring them even closer to their customers.
One great example that he shared is the @BenJerrysTruck campaign. They take the truck on a multi-state tour and when they arrive in a city with the Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream Truck they send out tweets to ask locals where the truck should go. As you can imagine this generates all sorts of terrific content and moments of interaction with their customers.
On their most recent excursion to Chicago they traveled around the city providing free ice cream in response to tweets. They tweeted out photos of each group of recipients enjoying the ice cream.
The Manual takes a free ice cream break with the @BenJerrysTruck. We’ll say we’re researching the use of ampersands. pic.twitter.com/NY2rbtyncQ
— Manual of Style (@ChicagoManual) August 22, 2014
Look whose in front of the hotel passing out samples of @benandjerrys it’s the @BenJerrysTruck! #benjerrystruck pic.twitter.com/qbzKQfmxyt
— HamptonChicago (@hamptonchicago) August 20, 2014
Thanks @BenJerrysTruck for stopping by our downtown office during your #CoreTour — made for a delicious lunch break! pic.twitter.com/0RhDe76cDq
— Discover (@Discover) August 15, 2014
Jay said that what enabled them to do all of these campaigns is their sense of clear brand purpose. They have a core vision that they stick to and this allows them to remain authentic to their brand whether they’re handing out free ice-cream or advocating GMO labeling.
Click here to listen to the full webinar with Jay Curley and Bryan Kramer.
