Science shows that ice cream creates changes in the brain that make you happy. And happy people are more likely to say yes. So we created Yes Sticks. A way to harness the positive effects of ice cream and ask someone for something you want.

The Yes Sticks promotion ran during Summer. During that time, we offered consumers the chance to put a question they’ve always wanted to ask someone on a custom-made ice cream stick inside an ice cream of their choosing.

Then, they could give it to the person they wanted to ask. The ice cream made them happier, which increased the chances of getting a yes to their question.

Science has shown that ice cream creates changes in our brain that make us happy. It also shows that happy people are more likely to say yes. So we made a small but powerful change to our product that helped people harness the power of ice cream.

Our nationwide campaign took place over New Zealand’s summer months (Dec to March). It began with a call to action that drove people to our Facebook app, where they told us the questions they wanted to put on Yes Sticks. Then, we took over the Tip Top factory for a week to put those questions on individual sticks inside ice cream flavours they chose. Each Yes Stick was hand delivered so they could give it to the person they were asking. Then people shared their answers with us and their friends on social media, spreading the word about the power of ice cream.

As a result of the Yes Sticks promotion, Tip Top had their biggest Summer sales in their 80 year history, with a 14% increase on last summer.

During the campaign period, Tip Top’s market share increased over Unilever by a full 7%.

Other campaign stats:

21 million impressions

1.3 million video streams

More than 100,000 clicks to the app in just the first 10 days