New York — A&P units here hope to turn this summer's dog days into Blue Bunny Days for New York City shoppers.
For the second consecutive year, 278 banner stores in the Montvale, N.J.-based chain will participate in an award-winning promotion whereby shoppers are eligible to earn a free 1.75-quart container of Blue Bunny Premium ice cream when the local temperature hits 80 degrees.
The “Is it a Blue Bunny Day?” offer will run from July 11 through Aug. 7.
“It's an excitement generator, and an attempt to build brand awareness and at the same time build the A&P family of banner stores,” said Patti Councill, spokeswoman for A&P.
As temperature-keeper, WABC Television's New York affiliate, ABC-7, will play an integral role in this year's promotion.
Each time the station reports that the mercury has hit 80 degrees at LaGuardia Airport, the first 1,000 visitors to register that day at www.7online.com will have a free coupon mailed to their home. Coupons may only be redeemed at participating A&P stores.
During last year's month-long “Chill Out with Blue Bunny” promotion, more than 1,000 consumers attempted to sign up for the free coupon on each of the 25 days when the temperature hit 80 degrees, according to Councill.
More than 21,000 coupons were distributed and 34% were redeemed, said Angela Watson, spokeswoman for Wells' Dairy, maker of Blue Bunny ice cream.
“That's an outstanding redemption rate,” said Lowell Cantor, spokesman for Northbrook, Ill.-based Blue Chip Marketing and Communications, the brand marketing firm that's working with Wells' Dairy on the promotion. “Nationally, FSIs are redeeming at a 2% to 3% rate.” Meanwhile, coupons distributed during Blue Bunny in-store demos usually have a 4% to 5% redemption rate, added Watson.
“There was a lift in A&P's ice cream sales” across brands, she said. “It not only performed well for us, but well enough for A&P that they were very interested in offering it again in 2008.”
Though Wells' Dairy was awarded an International Dairy Foods Association 2008 Achieving Excellence Award for its self-funded “Chill Out with Blue Bunny” program, it's found ways to improve upon the program it customized for A&P.
For instance, “Is it a Blue Bunny Day?” will leverage the larger viewership of ABC-7, rather than that of the local Fox affiliate that A&P worked with last year.
“ABC-7 has the largest reach of any station in the market,” Watson said.
The station will launch a weeklong promotional campaign consisting of 15-second commercials. “Is it a Blue Bunny Day?” will also be promoted through static clings on A&P's freezer doors; on the A&P, Blue Bunny and ABC-7 websites; and during in-store demos.
Another new addition will be the availability of a downloadable coupon that's good for 55 cents off any 1.75-quart container of Blue Bunny Premium ice cream. The coupon will be made available to website visitors after the 1,000-person quota has been met for the day.
“It makes everyone a winner,” said Watson. “If you're the 1,001st person, rather than getting a polite thank you, you'll get a valuable coupon that you can take back to the store.”
The names and addresses collected on the website are used only for coupon fulfillment purposes, noted Watson.
“We gather their names and addresses just so that we can send them the coupon within a week in the mail,” she said. “We don't sell it or solicit them beyond the promotion.”
Wells' Dairy opted to distribute the free coupons via mail, since “downloadable coupons allow for a lot less control,” said Cantor.
Last year, a feature on Fox's website was triggered each time the site reported that the temperature hit 80 degrees, said Watson.
“Once the temperature reached 80, the coupons were made available to the first 1,000 visitors,” she said. “But if it dipped back down after one minute to 79 and then never went back up to 80, only those who signed up before the temperature dropped were eligible for the coupon.”
