The Campaign

We decided to tackle the problem by renewing the product's packaging—but how does one make something delicious look completely unappealing? That's when we hit upon the idea of mimics—creatures in the natural world that camouflage themselves to avoid being eaten by prey. We decided to renew the product's packaging to one that disguised it as an ice pack. Not only are ice packs inedible and inconspicuous, they are also ubiquitous in the freezers of Japanese households, as they are given to customers for free by supermarkets and other stores.

The Brief

Overall budget 13,000 USD Breakdown of costs Design 10,000 USD / PR 3,000 USD

Creative Execution

We launched the product in stores across Japan, and simultaneously created a media narrative about the tragedy of household ice cream theft. To create public empathy for our cause, we also released data from our research indicating that this was not an uncommon incident.

Describe the success of the promotion with both client and consumer including some quantifiable results

Sales of the product had plateaued over the last several years, but the new packaging helped sales triple. The product was widely covered in TV and print media and also became a trending topic online. It was also featured in a magazine article on the year's biggest trending products. Social media users started a trend of sharing photographs of their mimic ice creams sitting safely in freezers, which helped deepen the narrative of the product being so delicious that people can't help but steal it.

Explain why the method of promotion was most relevant to the product or service

We designed a new wrapper for our ice cream product that made it indistinguishable from an ordinary ice pack, and then created a narrative about an ice cream that was so delicious, it learned to disguise itself as an ice pack to avoid getting eaten by anyone expect its rightful owner. This creative solution to the tragedy of household ice cream theft elicited a surprisingly passionate public response, and led to a social media trend of disguising ice cream products. As a result, we were able to strengthen the emotional bond between the brand and the public.

According to a survey we conducted, eighty percent of respondents said they had bought ice cream products that, without their permission, ended up being eaten by other people. Fifty percent of these tragic victims said they felt betrayed by these incidents. We were saddened to see that a product that was supposed to bring joy to the masses was creating such division. We decided to put a stop to these incidents by placing one of our ice cream products in packaging that mimicked the appearance of something inedible and inconspicuous: an ice pack.