The internet is buzzing with Van Leeuwen’s new collab that fuses their popular ice cream with classic Hidden Valley Ranch flavors we commonly associate with salads, though the times are changing and genius marketing strategies are at play.
After guiding as well as critiquing marketing campaigns for companies of all sizes around the world over the past 15+ years it’s not often that initiatives stand out, but something special is brewing (or churning) here.
One of the first things that stands out to us is how Walmart has welcomed Van Leeuwen’s line of ice cream flavors with open arms and they’re thinking outside of the box instead of conforming to the norm – something very common/safe within global organizations. Instead, they saw the vision and jumped aboard. And after reviewing data around the performance of this campaign it was a win all around.
Looking at Van Leeuwen’s marketing approach over the past few years it’s clear to see that they’re continuously breaking new ground and truly pushing the boundaries. From Hidden Valley Ranch ice cream to the Kraft macaroni and cheese ice cream they concocted, this is no ordinary ice cream company and more like a laboratory that develops the most epic bites of food that transcend time and remind us of our past.
So the big question is: How does the Hidden Valley Ranch ice cream taste? Our Founder is a foodie (@sirbrainchild on Instagram) and will be posting feedback soon. We can only anticipate it will taste like ranch with hints of buttery sweetness from the ice cream base.
Aside from marketing and purely looking at how Van Leeuwen approaches their R&D for new flavors, this agile approach to development is essentially what made them special then translated into huge wholesale accounts like Walmart and others. Learning from what’s happening on the ground then doing cool stuff to blow competitors out of the water.
This use case is a lesson for all food-related companies that are searching for ways to stand out from the crowd and do something special. Many times marketing teams try to attach themselves to what’s trending as opposed to creating the trend themselves, and this is a perfect example of how to win.