“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 longer 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 “WWYDFAKB?” campaign needed to effectively reach and attract younger users, men and women 25–44, and get them involved with the brand. Knowing that 90% of the target is online and one in four take advantage of social networking, the team developed a program to engage consumers through new media.Our agency and Klondike established goals and objectives to gauge campaign success, including: • Drive trial and purchase of Klondike bar products • Generate at least 60 million media impressions• Demonstrate a 200% increase in online discussion volume about Klondike, its products and the iconic “WWYDFAKB?” tagline.

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 200% increase in online discussion volume and the agency was credited for driving 35% of site traffic to KlondikeContest.com.• More than 30,000 people registered on KlondikeContest.com.

The campaign needed a celebrity “face” to draw attention to the video contest so we researched a dozen actors and comedians to find the perfect fit. Online video “wizard” Andy Samberg of the popular late night comedy sketch show, “Saturday Night Live” was deemed the indisputable choice. With Samberg and his “SNL” pals at the forefront of the video contest campaign, we developed PR strategies to engage a new era of consumers including: (1) Leveraging Samberg’s cache to enhance visibility; (2) Delivering social media support to drive participation and build buzz;(3) Driving quality video entries;(4) Establishing a multi-phased traditional media relations approach. To kick off the contest, Klondike gave Samberg creative license to answer the “WWYDFAKB” question in video format any way he wanted. The move was completely unprecedented for Klondike and the resulting three-part Klondike bar saga drew thousands of eager visitors to contest “headquarters” www.KlondikeContest.com.

“What Would You Do for a Klondike Bar?” is one of the most popular brand taglines in the U.S. Twenty-five years after the first “WWYDFAKB” advertising campaign, sales were beginning to level off and Klondike needed to expand the brand's relevancy beyond it's tried-and-true Baby Boomer audience.Klondike turned to our agency for help engaging a younger target. The team realized it should still ask the timeless question, but needed a new approach that would resonate with a generation of consumers who turn to the Internet for information, socialization and entertainment.