“What Would You Do for a Klondike Bar?” The Klondike brand has posed that well-known question to fans of their chocolate-coated ice cream treats for 25 years. But, it’s a question relevant to adults 45+ who were starting to walk away from the brand. Klondike needed to breathe new life into the slogan and saw long term sales potential in the 25 – 44 audience. The brand turned to our agency for help. In partnership with Klondike’s advertising and media agencies, we created the “What Would You Do for a Klondike Bar?” online video contest, inviting consumers to submit outlandish responses to the timeless question. Knowing the target audience is web-savvy, it became obvious that capitalizing on social media would be the best strategy for PR. We enlisted a relevant celebrity to inspire consumer entries and saturate the webisphere with contest news, reaching the target where they spend their leisure time online. Dedicated outreach to film schools and comedy troupes helped drive quality entries. Our efforts resulted in more than 390 million media impressions and a 2,060 percent increase in online chatter about the Klondike brand. By the end of the contest, Klondike also saw a notable increase in sales.

The campaign kicked off in May 2008 and ran through peak summer “ice cream” months, culminating in October 2008. Specific PR tactics included: • Securing exclusive releases of Samberg’s videos on video sharing sites, including FunnyorDie.com, Metacafe.com and popular YouTube pages.

• Tapping Klondike fanatics via a “Klondike” Facebook page and Twitter account, engaging curious “followers” with contest updates and tweets. Additionally, Klondike's Wikipedia entry was updated to drive traffic to the contest site.

• Coordinating a staggered media strategy to promote the video series and deliver contest news in phases.

More than 500 contest submissions from Klondike-crazed entrants poured in. Serendipity came into play when a serial contest fanatic was named the winner. He had literally travelled to the Arctic to eat a Klondike bar with polar bears. As part of the grand prize, the winner received $100,000 and a chance to meet Samberg for a video consultation.

As a result of this campaign, “What Would You Do For a Klondike Bar?” has attracted a loyal following of young adults. And, in turn, this target is putting their money where their mouth is:• The brand's dollar sales were trending down sharply in the first half of 2008, at a -10.5% decline versus prior year. However, during the campaign and continuing through the year, dollar sales improved to an increase of +0.9% versus prior year.* • We garnered 775 media placements and 390 million traditional and social media impressions. Key coverage highlights included “The Tonight Show” with Jay Leno, The New York Times, USA Today's “Pop Candy” blog, the LA Times blog, and “Funny Pages 2.0”• Klondike achieved a 2060 percent increase in online discussion volume and the agency was credited for driving 35 percent of site traffic to KlondikeContest.com.• More than 30,000 people registered on KlondikeContest.com.