GROCERY, ICE CREAM TO HEAT 'COOL' CAMPAIGN

RICHARD TURCSIK

WASHINGTON -- Ice cream and Center Store products are going to heat up the aisles this summer for the annual Cool Combinations frozen-food campaign.

Cool Combinations is a summertime promotion created by the International Ice Cream Association, a division of the International Dairy Foods Association here. The campaign combines popular ice cream brands with synergistic grocery products.

New to this year's Cool Combinations promotion are Archway cookies, Synder's of Hanover pretzels, Wet Ones wipes, Planters nuts and Hamilton Beach/Proctor-Silex small appliances. They will join last year's participants -- Aunt Jemima waffles, Smucker's ice cream toppings, Reddi Wip whipped cream, Betty Crocker jimmies and Cherry Man maraschino cherries -- for in-store promotions. The campaign will culminate in a nationwide sale of sundaes, malteds, waffles and ice cream sandwiches to benefit Easter Seals.

Amy Heinenmann, assistant director of marketing at the IDFA, said Easter Seals volunteers will be build the sundaes in supermarkets for a suggested $1 donation.

"We're going to encourage processors and retailers to take advantage of this as a public-relations opportunity," Heinemann said.

"This is great for the Easter Seals because they have been doing this for awhile; they used to do root beer float events. It also helps ice cream sales because there is sampling right there in the store with the partnering products," she said.

Allen Liss, president of SAI Marketing, the Jenkintown, Pa., marketing firm that is coordinating Cool Combinations, said the event will be heavily promoted in-store with point-of-purchase danglers, counter cards, posters, displays and static clings for freezer doors, along with an in-store distributed value-added recipe booklet that offers consumers an instantly redeemable coupon good for a free half-gallon of ice cream if they purchase the related grocery products.

"We're anticipating that Archway and Snyder's will run joint displays. We will get a minimum of 7,500 jumbo displays consisting of a picnic table and benches and all of their product will be sitting on that. Smucker's will have about 9,000 displays in the ice cream section," he said.

Liss said approximately 45 leading ice cream manufacturers are participating in the event, including Blue Bell, Borden, Breyers, Country Fresh, Dean, Hershey's, Hood, Galliker and Wells.