Dairy Queen: Building brand love through quarantine.

Dairy Queen is built around the simple idea that happy tastes good. But in a time when happiness isn’t guaranteed, our marketing messages became a moral question: How does DQ talk about happiness in a world brought to its knees by a global pandemic?

Challenge

As production capabilities moved to virtual and restaurant locations closed for dine-in options, we needed to come up with a year’s worth of new ways to connect DQ fans to their beloved brand.

Modern Consumer Insight

Social media channels and real time research allowed DQ fans to tell us where to take the brand: From happiness as a state of mind to happiness as a choice.

Solution

With consumers under full lockdown, we created happy choices: DIY waterpark kits, Blizzard candles and an animated campaign that overcame production challenges. DQ even received an unpaid feature on Jimmy Fallon’s “Thank You Notes,” reaching millions of nightly viewers.