Ben & Jerry's just partnered up with Oreo's digital shop 360i, which probably means you should start following the ice cream company on Twitter right now.
If there is one brand that has truly shined on social media this year, it's Oreo.
The cookie is all about cultural relevance. It was widely recognized for stealing the spotlight, so to speak, during the Super Bowl blackout, tweeting "Power out? No problem... You can still dunk in the dark," with an accompanying picture. 360i was able to move so quickly because it had set up a mission control during the Super Bowl so it would be ready to react on social media if anything breaking happened during the game.
Oreo also just won the Facebook Studio Awards for posting 100 posts (celebrating the Mars Rover, gay pride, talk like a pirate day, and more) in 100 consecutive days for its 100th birthday. 360i worked with DraftFCB on the Facebook work, although Oreo has now replaced DraftFCB with Wieden + Kennedy.
Ben & Jerry's has also proven itself to both be engaging on social media and tapped into cultural trends. It regularly releases new ice cream flavors based on what's happening in the news, from "Apple-y Ever After" to celebrate gay marriage to "Lemon Greek Frozen Yogurt" to appropriately send off "30 Rock" protagonist Liz Lemon when the show went off the air.
Thus the marriage with 360i seems appropriate.
"Digital is a growing a piece of our marketing mix, so we wanted to make sure we had the right partner who would work with us to push the envelope and develop better relationships with our fans online," Ben & Jerry's digital marketing executive Mike Hayes told Ad Age. "360i had proven they are really at the forefront of a lot of things in the digital space, especially social media. We're looking for someone to help bring us to the next level."
According to MediaPost, B&J spent $5.5 million on ads in the U.S. in 2012 and $220,000 in digital display advertising.
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