HÄagen-Dazs Launches Web Promotion for New Dessert

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Frozen desserts retailer HÄagen-Dazs Shoppe Co. is looking to build up excitement around its newest dessert with an online contest and promotion.

Through the end of July, the Minneapolis, Minn.-based company will distribute game cards with every purchase at participating HÄagen-Dazs franchises.

On the card is a code; entering that code on the HÄagen-Dazs Web site takes users to a game page, where they enter to play an online "match-and-win" game. The user must select three of the nine Dazzlers on the page; if the three Dazzlers all reveal the same prize, the user wins.

HÄagen-Dazs did not disclose spending on the promotional effort, but it said it's giving away more than $11 million worth of prizes, including a 3-year 2001 Jaguar XK8 lease, $5,000 shopping sprees, free ice cream for a year, and gift certificates for the Banana Split Dazzler.

CRC Marketing Solutions oversaw the campaign's strategy, site design, and point-of-sale promotional materials.

Programs like HÄagen-Dazs' "Discover the Dazzler" Web game are becoming increasingly common among offline retailers seeking to launch new products. The Gillette Company is running a "Celebrate the Goddess In You" contest for its new Venus razor. (Alley-based Promotions.com provided the technology behind the effort.) In May, Johnson & Johnson/Merck Consumer Pharmaceuticals launched an online sweepstakes to promote a new Pepcid Complete antacid product.

The payoff for offline marketers? Retailers can run a fairly extensive sweepstakes to boost sales or unveil new products at a modicum of the publishing and management costs associated with offline contests.

And through promotional contests, marketers also gain valuable data on their customers. In the case of HÄagen-Dazs, contest participants must register information such as age, zip code, and email addresses to enter. The company's Web site also allows visitors to opt into receiving emailed news and promotional offers.

But Kelly Wold, who oversees marketing at HÄagen-Dazs, said the contest is more intended to "break the ice" with consumers regarding the new dessert.

"We are excited to introduce the new Banana Split Dazzler and the 'Discover the Dazzler' online game -- they both offer a millennium twist to a classic offering," Wold said. "Both our customers and our franchisees will enjoy the innovative new product and game."