Live from Promo Live: Dairy Queen Builds Loyalty with Innovative Promotions
Dairy Queen has a loyal customer base. But the company isn’t taking it for granted.
For example, the eatery built up its loyalty program, the Blizzard Fan Club, to nearly 1.4 million members in three years with online games. The latest promotion, called the Blizzard Sweet Sounds Game, offers daily prizes of $50 in music downloads, ring tones or DC gift certificates.
People enter codes from Dairy Queen Blizzard cups at BlizzardFanClub.com for a chance to win. Monthly prizes include a Sony MP3 music player and quarterly prizes include a Sony DVD Dream System Home Theater System. Codes can also be obtained at DairyQueen.com.
“The only way to build brand loyalty is to engage at the customer level,” said Andrew Mitchell, CEO of Brandmovers, whose agency handles the campaign.
Dairy Queen is promoting the game, which Brandmovers handles, on its cups and online. So far, the promotion has had 3 million plays, Patty Halverson, director of promotions for Dairy Queen, said yesterday.
“The cups are really a critical promotional piece for us,” she said.
The Blizzard Sweet Sounds Game is just one of several promotions Dairy Queen has run to build its loyalty club membership. Under the program, members receive an online coupon for a “buy one, get one free” Blizzard treat, receive monthly e-mail updates on new flavors and earn birthday greetings with a second free Blizzard coupon.
Beyond its loyalty program, Dairy Queen keeps people engaged with sweepstakes and contests.
Take the company’s summer promotion, Free, Click, Win, for instance. In it, customers uploaded photos of themselves or friends enjoying a Waffle Bowl. The two-month contest, designed to promote Dairy Queen’s Waffle Bowls product, brought 194,000 unique visitors to the Dairy Queen Web site. Of that, 8,094 photos were submitted for contest, which award daily prizes of $500 a day.
“In terms of engagement, we were happy with the results,” Halverson said.
But Dairy Queen isn’t finished yet. The company is using more interactive media to keep people buzzing about its brand.
On Oct. 1, Dairy Queen plans to launch a new Blizzard Fan Club Web site complete with social networking components and online games.
Also in October, the firm plans to roll out new gift cards with an incentive to drive sales. People who buy $20 or more in Dairy Queen gift cards will receive a free 12-ounce Blizzard treat, Halverson said.
