DQ is an American QSR known for its legendary ice cream treats and delicious food. A hometown favorite in every hometown. DQ doesn’t have customers. DQ has fans. This truth helped launch DQ’s “Fan Food. Not fast food” campaign in June of 2013. The fast food (QSR) category has been flat to declining for the past two years. DQ, on the contrary, is up 3.5% year over year* since the launch.

b. For the Cupid Cake campaign, we targeted mid 30s male and females with a production budget and media budget of under 1 million dollars.

DQ is known for the free iconic red plastic spoons. So, we choose to elevate the spoon as the perfect pairing to the Cupid Cake. We took a page out of the jewelry category we were parodying by taking the spoon and packaging it in a DQ branded red velvet jewelry case. We then partnered with DQ’s ecommerce division, and made the spoons available for purchase. We created media kits and social videos promoting purchase of the spoon and immediately after launch, the spoon began to generate local and national coverage leading to an increase in overall fan engagement.

The results were staggering. The #BreakTheCliche promotional campaign increased online sales 93% over the previous year. And to our surprise, we even sold over 1,500 plastic spoons and cases.