Dairy Queen Beefs Up Marketing with New Hire

International Dairy Queen has named Jill Anderson to replace Patty Halvorson, Dairy Queen’s director of promotions, who left in late December.

Halvorson worked as director of segment marketing before moving up to director of promotions for the fast food chain. During that time, she oversaw a variety of promotions, everything from using the popular comic book character Dennis the Menace to pitch Dairy Queen products to launching movie and TV tie-ins.

The company recently wrapped up a holiday campaign promoting DQ gift cards via a social-networking site where visitors watched video clips about an elderly woman who must have a DQ Blizzard a day.

Halvorson is also credited with launching Dairy Queen’s popular online loyalty club, the Blizzard Fan Club, which has grown to include more than 1.4 million members.