Aug 1, 2008 12:00 PM, Amy Johannes

Dibs ice cream looks online for a new customer

Without doing one ounce of marketing in grocery stores, Dibs is hoping to drive sales of its ice-cream with a new customer, 13-year-olds and up. It's a dramatic shift away from its traditional family focused marketing plan.

A new video contest, the first of its kind for Dibs, asks these young people to submit 30- to 45-second videos that incorporate the bite-sized treats, hopefully by eating them.

“We want teens to become engaged with this brand,” says Jennifer Eiseman, brand manager for Dibs Brand Snacks. “Having teens create different vignettes of how they eat Dibs is a great way to drive that engagement.”

As of last month, more than 200 videos had been uploaded to www.dibsfilmfest.com where visitors can rate them. The top 10 will be reviewed by a team of judges based on originality, creativity, portrayal of the Dibs brand and suitability of use in an ad. The grand-prize winner gets $10,000 and the chance to have his or her video air on MTV. The promo ends Aug. 8.

A separate sweepstakes on the site, which runs through Sept. 5, offers the chance to win stuff this age group lives for: laptops, video cameras, iPods and digital cameras, among other prizes.

To let kids know about the contest, Dibs, which is made by Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream Holdings, set up P-O-P materials in Blockbuster locations and began airing 15- and 30-second TV spots on MTV and MTV 2. An online and PR campaign is also under way, and 50-cent-off coupons were available at 7-Eleven stores in July.

Historically, the company relied on coupons and FSIs to target families, Eiseman says. But when it set out to connect with a younger crowd this year, “We knew those tactics were not going to work,” she adds.

So, the firm is trying something new.

It's letting young consumers play with its brand, while reaching them in ways they find relevant to their lifestyles, says Sterling Hayman, group account director for TracyLocke, which is handling the campaign.

“We knew promotions would be important because of the unique nature of product. We wanted to play off that,” Hayman adds.

For more articles on retail marketing go to www.promomagazine.com/retail

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