The ice cream category is crowded and stagnant: over five years, it’s grown just 4%. Though Baskin-Robbins is a long-standing, beloved brand, they have struggled to stay relevant to the modern ice cream consumer. This challenge is exacerbated in the summer, when competition is fierce.

Enter Stranger Things. At the heart of season 3 is a fictional ice cream parlor called Scoops Ahoy. The Stranger Things kids work and hang out there, but Scoops Ahoy also sits atop a secret underground compound, run by nefarious Russians trying to open inter-dimensional portals. For teens, Russian spies, and even Mind Flayer monsters, it’s 1985’s hottest summer spot.

Baskin-Robbins saw an opportunity to make the fictional Stranger Things world real in a way no other brand could. By doing so, we could make an aging brand relevant to a new, younger audience as well as spark sales during the summer sales period.

By turning the Baskin-Robbins brand into Scoops Ahoy, and extending the Stranger Things storyline through an alternate-reality game, we would take fans back to 1985, and give them a chance to become characters in the Stranger Things story.

We targeted teenagers and young adults yearning for more Stranger Things. They had been swept away by a fantastical, spy-ridden universe full of Mind Flayers and super powers. And because they’re deeply invested in this universe, they’re bingers — more prone to watch the new season the weekend it’s released, and more likely to sit down and watch as many episodes as they can at once. We knew we needed to turn this addiction to Stranger Things into an addiction for Baskin-Robbins. To do so, we had to give them what they wanted most: more Stranger Things. We did this by extending the story and leveraging our vast retail footprint to bring it into the real world.

Days before the ST3 premiere, Baskin-Robbins stores in the U.S. and Canada were turned into Scoops Ahoy stores overnight. Then, on the day of the premiere, we released a “1985” Scoops Ahoy commercial.

Hidden inside the stores and TV commercial were clues that led to Operation Scoop Snoop, an alternate-reality game. To make the ARG feel authentic to the show, players had to use 1985 technology to play, like landlines, fax machines, and Telnet, an early form of the internet.

For two weeks, players descended into 160 pages of new storyline, using clues from the show, Scoops Ahoy stores, and AI characters to complete daily missions.

Players gathered on Reddit and Discord to share clues and conspiracy theories. We monitored their chats, and integrated their names and comments into the game in real time. We then rewarded the first ELEVEN finishers with ice cream for life.

-In a sea of 75 Stranger Things brand partnerships, Baskin-Robbins truly stood out as the only one who was able to extend the story for fans, creating a deeper impact. Over 500,000 people played Operation Scoop Snoop, resulting in 57 total years of gameplay.

-Fans were so enthralled with Operation Snoop Scoop, they demanded an “Ask Me Anything” session with Baskin-Robbins, the agency, and the production team, to continue the conversation. This was an industry first that turned into a 7-hour show of brand love for Baskin-Robbins.

-In addition to the deep engagement with Baskin-Robbins’ Operation Snoop Scoop, the 2-month partnership reached billions of people, with nearly 4 billion impressions total, comprised of 200 million paid media impressions and 3.7 billion earned impressions.