Kids have always loved ice cream but keeping our brand top of mind against increased snack and media entertainment choices was a big challenge.Knowing that in order to truly engage our core target of older kids, we created a unique approach that would differentiate us from the rest of our peers who would focus their programmes solely around product innovation or consumer promotionLooking at our different platforms globally, we discovered a brand character that had been in use in Asia and Australia for some time but primarily on product packaging and advertising: Paddle Pop lion. Here was a unique opportunity to leverage a previously underutilised asset in order to drive brand differentiation in the extremely competitive market context we were in. After an initial pilot phase, we decided to use him as a basis for a full global 360 Kids entertainment franchise that would take him where no other brand character had been before: Paddle Pop Adventures was born!Our aim was simple but ambitious: create stories that would bring alive the brands essence through its mascots’ adventures, and make these as engaging as the cartoons and games kids already loved.

We talked to kids globally to understand exactly what they wanted out of entertainment content and our proposition was born: The thrilling and exciting adventures of Paddle Pop!Kids wanted to be taken on fantastic journeys to discover new places, meet new people and do cool new things. The concept of good vs evil resonated with them, and they wanted to be a part of that classic battle on the side of good with a hero characters they could relate to. We created adventure stories that embodied all this and this allowed kids to engage with our brand wholeheartedly.

In markets where the Paddle Pop brand already existed, we hit new highs in terms of conviction behind the brand (71% from 65% in Indonesia). In markets where we launched for the first time, we generated high awareness of up to 90% Our content was the key driver and this was proven by the overwhelming response to various media and activities built around it. Our TV programmes performed strongly vs established kids programming, such as Phineas & Ferb, SpongeBob, High School Musical and Harry Potter in markets such as India, Indonesia, Mexico and Australia. In Turkey, where the content was introduced in cinema to paying customers, we hit a high of the no.3 most watched film in the country performing ahead of Hollywood movies.

Over 1.2M kids in India joined to the Paddle Pop Gaming League and over 5m DVD’s were redeemed via promotions in Southeast Asia.The impact of our programme translated into unprecedented Ice Cream sales with global growth of +26% in 2011 with new markets growing even more strongly at +43%.Paddle Pop is now the fastest growing global brand platform, in the largest Ice Cream company in the world.