Dietary ice cream hit Instagram
'11.05.2017'
Source: Bloomberg
Even though the brand Halo Top does not use traditional advertising; it’s still difficult for the manufacturer to keep up with suppliers' orders, writes Bloomberg.
For a hike in Big Bend National Park in Texas, professional photographer Jay Kazen has everything you need: a tent, a sleeping bag, Canon 5DS and - 2 kg of ice cream Halo Top.
Since his discovery of this low-calorie, high-protein potion, 27-year-old Kazen, he rarely spends a day without a ration or two. Before the pilgrimage to the 800-acre national park, he hid it in the bottom of a cooler, overlaid with dry ice. “I'm kind of addicted to this treat,” he says.
Kazen posted in Instagram some pictures of him eating Halo Top between stunning views of desert landscapes. The views were so beautiful that they looked almost like an advertisement.
The post garnered over 1000 likes, including one from the brand. “It's very cool,” he said of the company's reaction.
Such a reaction was not accidental. Behind the scenes Halo top creamery More than a dozen communications and marketing personnel create new digital content, develop a brand and respond to hundreds of social media posts every day.
“Our philosophy is to respond to everyone and everyone who writes about us,” says Ryan Bouton, the company's director of communications.
With more than 700 millions of users, Instagram became a platform for finding everything from corsets to laxative pills. While many brands pay powerful people to promote their products, Halo Top claims she never paid for posts. However, the hashtag #HaloTop 100 was used almost 000 times, and the company has almost 400 000 subscribers. Until recently, she did not spend a penny on traditional advertising, paying only some targeted ads on social networks.
Since 2012, the popularity Halo Topis growing at an explosive pace, while sales grew by 2500% only last year, amounting to about 8,5 million kg. (For comparison: according to the statement of the press secretary, with reference to the data Nielsencollected last year Ben & Jerry sold over 75 million kg).
Halo Top I won test battles and even made one brave one eat only ice cream, and nothing more, for 10 days.
It tastes like ice cream, but with 300 calories per day, 5 kg is a relatively harmless treat, made from erythritol, sugarless, stevia, milk protein, plant fiber, and egg whites. Brand information was mostly transmitted word of mouth, especially among users. Instagram in fitness and weight loss communities. They compare notes on flavors, lobby for grocery stores, and share information about where sales are taking place with discounts.
This ice cream is difficult to find in grocery stores. Even Whole Foods in New York's bustling Union Square has only a third of the company's 17 flavors in stock. "Lemon Pie" and "Black Cherry" are the most difficult to obtain, according to the company.
“It’s a special pleasure to try to guess where it’s found and with what flavor,” says 34-year-old Kyle Lowry from Talsa, Oklahoma. She and her sister Kara use Instagram for documenting dietary meals. When they discover that Halo Top counted only a few points of the program, they go on a search, often leaving stores with empty shelves.
But on a recent trip to Wal-Mart Cara stumbled upon a freezer filled with ice cream. Her post in Instagram collected incredible for her half a thousand likes.
“If this ice cream isn't in your main grocery store, you'll have to work hard to find it,” explains Kyle Lowry.
The average American, according to the International Dairy Association, eats 11 kg of ice cream annually, which is equivalent to 15 kg, depending on how densely they are packed. This is approximately 1 kg per month. However the fans Halo Top eating much more, usually buying from 3-4 kg at a time, says Wolverton.
“People eat this ice cream every day, every other day,” he said, citing consumer research.
“Alas, the shops are not equipped with frozen desserts like ours.” To solve this problem, the company creates branded freezers, Woolverton reported.
The lack of advertising was also a distribution function: the company did not want to place large orders in the media until the product was easily available in all markets.
Now, when Halo Top available more or less throughout the country, the company began to buy more traditional advertising, such as radio commercials, podcasts and billboards. But they expect that the activity in social networks will not fade away, because customers are making fun of their favorite sweets.
“We'd like to say it's because of our ingenious marketing,” Wolverton said. - But I think that Halo Top just good enough to buy it. ”
