“Walmart Ugly Sundaes”
Client: Unilever
Agency: Arc Worldwide
While ice cream enjoys a starring role in the summer, it is often marginalized to a supporting player during the holidays. Pumpkin pie a la mode, anyone?
When Walmart gave Unilever the sweet opportunity to allocate shelf space for 16 new
items in the category — including seasonally ir-relevant cones, bars and ice cream truck favorites — Unilever sought to develop a clever concept that could elevate its frozen treats to top billing.
“All of the new items were novelties and pints, so we had to get creative. We knew that we needed to break through the noise of all of the other holiday advertising and find a way to make these items relevant,” says Julia Frazier, shopper marketing manager at Unilever. “We pushed the consumer’s understanding of our brands in the category’s off-season by bringing the items together in a way that prioritized memories and fun over holiday expectations and stress.”
Enter Ugly Sundaes, a campaign dripping with irony (and hot fudge) that pays homage to the cheeky holiday pastime of ugly Christmas sweater parties. The message to Walmart’s target audience of Gen X and younger parents: Have fun, let loose and dispense with stressful holiday entertaining in favor of more spontaneous and free-form ice cream sundae desserts.
“We looked to the beloved tradition of ugly sweater parties because it embraces the messy, untraditional and imperfection of the season. It was a white space for ice cream in a crowded market,” says Katrine Ryan, senior strategist at Arc Worldwide. “When our creative team suggested that shoppers mix and mash our products together, it felt like the ultimate rebellion our shopper seeks from cookie-cutter expectations and holiday pressures.”
As part of its online platform, Unilever targeted shoppers using Walmart’s first-party data on TikTok, where influencers showcased how to unlock stress-free fun with ugly sundaes during the holidays. It also extended the activation into Pinterest to create more space for recipe content and inspiration. Unilever leveraged its portfolio of ice cream brands — Breyers, Ben & Jerry’s, Talenti, Magnum and Klondike — to encourage shoppers to “get messy” in the kitchen and post their creations online at a brand engagement page at Walmart.com.
“The most unusual posts we saw were some of my absolute favorites from the program,” says Jon Britt, creative director at Arc Worldwide. “The influencer posts were about making a game out of our call to action and amplified across Instagram and TikTok via the influencer’s handle and TikTok via Walmart’s handle. We saw influencers and followers alike pitting themselves against loved ones in a battle for the ugliest — and most delicious — sundaes.”
Taking advantage of a surge in holiday website traffic, Unilever drove inspiration and consideration for conversion through digital media buys with animated imagery, while catering to shoppers’ lean holiday budgets with a variety of basket-building savings offers.
To the delight of Unilever and Walmart, the results were a lot prettier than the sundaes. Posting a strong 13.2% year-over-year dollar growth across the Unilever portfolio, the program surpassed the benchmark of 8.7% year-over-year category growth at Walmart. Unilever brought 1.7 million new households versus the previous period, surpassing 2021’s household penetration growth of 18%. An impressive 27% of buyers at Walmart tried one of the featured brands for the first time.
Consumer engagement and media performance also exceeded expectations. Audiences targeting traditional holiday items saw the third-highest click-through rate of .22% and drove a $10.43 ROAS, significantly exceeding benchmarks. Influencer content achieve a positive sentiment rate, which was two times higher than the benchmark.