In a difficult year, Netflix Is A Joke, and Ben & Jerry’s wanted to bring joy to consumers in a way only these two brands could — with jokes and ice cream.

BACKGROUND

Ben & Jerry’s and Netflix were launching their fourth flavor together as part of the Netflix and Ben & Jerry’s “Four Pint Deal.” Punch Line ice cream is a comedic duo of Brown Butter Bourbon & Almond Ice Creams with Roasted Almonds & Chuckles of Cherries, inspired by the “Netflix is a Joke” comedy platform.

Since Netflix doesn’t run native ads, to support the launch, we were tasked with tapping into the fan love for Netflix comedy and finding a unique way to bring the campaign to life as entertainment that fans would seek out and engage with.

Netflix and Ben & Jerry’s are uniquely positioned to authentically and creatively highlight people who are changing comedy, the ones who are delivering the biggest “punch,” if you will, and they were looking for comedians who are relatable, inspiring, and who deliver powerful messages through their humor.

CREATIVE IDEA & EXECUTION

To showcase the Netflix comedy platform, Netflix is A Joke, and introduce people to Ben & Jerry’s new Netflix-themed flavor, “Punch Line,” we wanted to get people’s attention by making them laugh. So, with the pandemic prohibiting most people from seeing live comedy, we gave them a hotline they could call from anywhere for jokes and ice cream— The Punch Line Hotline. Netflix Is A Joke comedians Wanda Sykes, Fortune Feimster, and Aparna Nancherla wrote and recorded over 30 minutes of comedy for the Punch Line Hotline. We then promoted the hotline like other (less-funny) 1-800 hotlines — on billboards, bus benches, and television commercials, creating a uniquely delicious audio-entertainment-based campaign.

RESULTS

The hotline exceeded expectations with hundreds of thousands of callers who stayed on the line for an average of 2 minutes per call! Most ads interrupt; this is entertainment wherein consumers called us and engaged with the content.

Over 125,000 people dialed in with a daily average of 2,000 callers, and 22,000 of those were repeat callers.

The campaign garnered 164 million earned media impressions across traditional online, broadcast, influencer, and social media coverage, with 22 million impressions in paid media, reaching over 12.8 million unique households.

Overall, Unilever saw a 5.4% increase in Food & Refreshment sales for 2020. The Netflix and Ben & Jerry’s new flavors boosted Ben & Jerry’s sales so much that they were called out as a highlight during Unilever’s quarterly investor earnings report (in an otherwise rough quarter).