Today, we’re ranking ice cream ads from some of your favorite ice cream shops. We hope you enjoy our tier list!
What is going on? My name is Gabe, and we’re going to be ranking these 9 different ice cream ads. Now, if you want to be able to see the videos, they’re going to be just after this presentation and we’re going to be ranking them into 4 different tiers.
Ice Cream Ads: Tier List
So the top of the tier, the Cream of The Crop is the cream of the crop and that is something that is going to give you a top-level performance. It’s really going to be a differentiator in terms of the results that you’re going to get by having these video ads. Then, we have All The Fixins. So essentially everything is there. It’s still going to be a good performer, not the top 20% but you’re still going to be able to have most likely, depending on what your funnel is, an efficient funnel because of your creative.
Then, we’re going to have Losing Cone-trol, where it’s an okay ad. It’ll be able to get by, nothing special. And then we have the fourth tier where You Got Soft Served. And just to be frank, these ads are going to lose you cash. They are not a good representation of what your product is. It doesn’t really differentiate the video. And if I were them, I would immediately start testing new and different creatives on how they can be able to improve their conceptualization for the audience about what the benefit of their product is.
Alden’s Ice Cream
Cool. So now that we’ve got that, we’re going to jump into Alden’s Organic. Okay. So one of the very first things that I noticed is if you are for acquisition. Now, if you’re Coca-Cola and you have millions upon millions of dollars to be able to spend, then you can be able to do more branding because you’re not necessarily worried about acquisition right away. However, with Alden’s Organic leading with their logo, they’re wasting valuable time by not telling the audience what the actual benefit of their product is. And also by leading with the logo, the audience isn’t going to be as appealed, so that also means that they’re most likely going to scroll down.
Now from a brand play, that’s awesome, but we’re actually going under an acquisition lens. Specifically, getting people to click on the ad and getting people to then purchase from this ad. This is not offline. We’re judging it based on the acquisition results directly attributable to their social ads.
Decent job showing the ice cream. Honestly, they can do much more. It’s just really static images. “Real ingredients.” That’s something that I would lead possibly with at the beginning because that’s a more impactful benefit that really differentiates your ice cream. And by having it in the seventh second, you’re going to have a decent amount of audience who are going to drop consumption at that point in time. Cool. Then they have social proof, “get yours today.” 15 seconds. It’s okay.
Now, this is one of those ones where you want to be able to put it right in between All The Fixins and Losing Cone-trol. I’m going to go with Losing Cone-trol simply because the ice cream that’s being shown is a static image and there’s a lot more potential if you’re showing a video, which gives them more depth to what the product is. Cool. Let’s go to Baskin-Robbins.
Baskin-Robbins
Now, this one makes me cringe because we have no idea what the ad is at first. It’s so far away. So with social media, you want to be able to lead with that benefit as best as you possibly can. And it’s so far away that the audience isn’t able to instantly recognize what’s going on. Then, there’s also no captions at all. So the audience from a sound off environment, which 85% of the social feed is consumed with on Facebook and Instagram, won’t be able to recognize it. And with no captions, they’re not giving any additional visual context to what the product that they’re selling is. We don’t have much of a benefit except it’s an ice cream cake. It’s an ice man ice cream cake.
Nice, but it is not telling us anything that makes a difference at all. It’s really not a differentiator. So this one, Baskin Robbins, You Just Got Served.
Häagen-Dazs
Let’s go to Häagen-Dazs. I really like this one. First of all, color coding or color blending is really great. We have a strawberry ice cream and then we have a redhead eating the strawberry ice cream. That’s really powerful. We get a good visualization of the ice cream and then we also see them enjoying that ice cream as well. So we’re getting a strong messaging from Häagen-Dazs that luxury is where you are and that this is a type of ice cream that you would thoroughly enjoy. That’s also letting us know that they’re calling out strawberry ice cream too. Good job there.
Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams
Let’s go to Jeni’s. Oh no. Yeah. “Is that what I think it is?” So they start with an introduction of a box that’s at your front door, but on social media, this is going to be typically a first touch point for your audience with your brand. So when they see a box of Jeni’s, they have no idea what that is. That could either be ice cream or it could be dog food. “Is that what I think it is?” I don’t even know. So that opening is not strong. It’s wasted time. Does it go on for like 4 or 5 seconds? And then they have product shots. Nice, but it’s really hard to be able to tell exactly what type of ice cream is being shown there. They’re not specifically looking at one. It’s 6 instead, so it’s hard to be able to focus.
Also, it doesn’t really tell us much that makes their ice cream different. We’re just looking specifically at packaging. We’re not even looking at the actual product so it’s a weak sell from you there and it just says “Yes.” Now, we finally are able to get the ice cream shot at the very end. But once again, it’s not telling us anything that’s special about the product at all. Not a strong ad and this Got Served. Cool.
Moose Tracks
Let’s go into Moose Tracks. Once again, not the strongest differentiator of the product but there’s a lot of product shots and you see people enjoying it. I wish that they used video, but for static images, it does a decent job. Yeah. It’s at 6 seconds, so it’s able to tell the story at a fast pace and also at a pace that is digestible for Instagram stories. So because it’s at 6 seconds, you’re going to get more optimal placements at least from Instagram and Facebook stories. So Moose Tracks, you are Losing Cone-trol.
Perry’s Ice Cream
All right. Let’s go into Perry’s. Oh, okay. I see this in a ton of ads. Besides to say that it’s in Christmas time, what value does the snow in the background give? What value does that give? It doesn’t say anything about the product. It’s just extending that this ad can be either, I think it lasts 15 seconds. Yeah. It lasts 15 seconds. It could be 3 seconds for all I care. The performance would be the same. What is the point? It doesn’t tell us anything that is special about the product as well except it’s Christmas oriented. Perry’s, You Got Served.
Pierre’s Ice Cream
All right. Let’s go into Pierre’s. Yeah. It’s one static image throughout, so it doesn’t tell us much about the product at all. It’s also a little bit hard from the first shot to really have an understanding that it is ice cream. It isn’t as easy as you could have it be to explain that — to visualize that it is ice cream. It’s also even more difficult to be able to see, more difficult than the previous videos to see what type of ice cream it is because everything is jumbled. It’s not the same angle. So it’s very difficult to read what type of ice cream that they have or that they’re showcasing.
And then the third one is the text doesn’t come till the fourth second. So it says, “When you go to the store for ice cream and can’t decide on a flavor.” That should not be at the fourth second, that should be at the first second. I guarantee you. You switch those captions to the first second, your performance instantly improves, INSTANTLY improves. So Pierre’s, You’re Getting Served.
Salt and Straw
All right, Salt and Straw. Okay. I like this because it is quick to the point and we’re able to get a good visualization of what the product is. However, “assembly required.” I’ve not done the market research, but I’m pretty sure people don’t choose one ice cream over another because one has less assembly required so that’s why they purchase it. I could be wrong but for me, that’s not a compelling reason for me to buy ice cream. So you’re saying the reason why your ice cream is the bomb diggity is because it takes me less effort to open up the top and start scooping? Sure.
It’s cute. It’s not actionable, but it does go directly to the points of what they’re selling. So it’s Losing Cone-trol and I promise you not all of these are Losing Cone-trol and You Got Soft Served. We do have 2 really good ads and that other one would be Tillamook.
Tillamook
Okay. So why is this a good ad? It starts with the logo in the beginning but it goes out fairly quickly and I do like the overlay that they have just one second in. So it starts with the scooping of ice cream. What a strong visualization. Then, it shows family, everybody’s touching that ice cream. Once again, a strong visualization.
“When the ice cream is this creamy” which follows along with the opening scene, it’s creamy with being scooped. So they’re doubling down on that storytelling and they’re about to triple. “How is it so creamy?” And then they story tell not only about how their ice cream is creamy, but why it’s creamy. So you’re getting an in depth explanation about their product. You see that it’s made in a lab. “More cream.” It’s very creamy. This is the type of thing that differentiates them.
It gets a little funny. The family’s still eating ice cream and they’re distracted because it’s so creamy. And then you are getting product shots where you can clearly see what the ice cream is and Tillamook, “do right by every bite.” I like that tagline. It is a great job. And by watching that video, my mouth is starting to water and it’s making me want to have one. Out of all of these, that is the video that gets me most excited.
The only thing that I would bring up is it is 30 seconds long. So you are not going to get optimal placements at 30 seconds. It is okay to let your video breathe if you need to be able to story tell that for 30 seconds. Ideally, that should be 15 but it does a great job. And if I were Tillamook, what I would do is try different iterations where you can be able to get that under 15 seconds, so you can get optimal placements on stories. However, that’s not going to crash. Because it’s 30 seconds, this ad is not going to crash and burn and that’s why it is the Cream Of The Crop because it is the creamiest.
Final Thoughts
So let us know what you think about these ice cream ads. How would you rank them into your rankings? Now, you’re going to be able to see these videos. The way that we walk through them is the way that we’re going to be presenting them right now in alphabetical order. Thanks!
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