Rather than shy away from winter tundra, Dairy Queen is meeting Canadians in their element with a campaign that builds Blizzards into our frozen landscape.
The “DQ Blizzard Banks,” which install seven-foot red spoons and giant smarties into snowbanks in select locations, popped up after large parts of the country were hit by severe winter weather in recent weeks.
Vini Dalvi, CCO at Dairy Queen Canada’s AOR, Publicis in Toronto, says the campaign serves to remind customers of the restaurant’s year-round appeal in a competitive dining landscape.
“The QSR space in Canada is crowded with many new competitors entering the space as well as increased access to brands through delivery partners,” Dalvi tells strategy. “This makes it even more critical for DQ to maintain relevance and awareness year round – we are a warm-weather staple, but it’s not always top of mind as it gets colder out. We knew from research that most Canadians don’t give up ice cream in the winter, and so we wanted to take advantage of that.”
Choosing the correct launch date was imperative, Dalvi says, as organizers tapped into weather predictions and snowfall trends to get the logistics in order.
“The timing of this campaign was critical. For it to succeed, we needed snow, lots of it,” Dalvi says. “We purposefully chose cities that, one, had a strong DQ presence and, two, were highly likely to have significant snowfall by mid-February. We even tapped into weather predictions from the Farmer’s Almanac to try and get it right.”
The initial run of the campaign includes installations in Ottawa, Winnipeg, Collingwood, Ont., Whistler, B.C., and Calgary. Dairy Queen is leaving open the possibility that more “Blizzard Banks,” which give customers the chance to win a year of free Blizzards through a QR code contest, will appear in other communities as the winter goes on.
Partnerships with the Weather Network, which will update consumers on when they can expect Blizzards to hit their hometowns, and influencers in participating markets will also be used to help spread the word.
