Championing holistic well-being

Halo Top was stuck in a calorie-count war with a growing list of fast-follower competition. As the brand that reinvented ice cream by creating a product that tastes good and is good for you, Halo Top’s goal is to transcend the purely functional role of its product by developing stronger emotional connections with shoppers.

In a crowded category with heavy switching purchase behavior, we wanted to show that Halo Top is more than just another low-calorie ice cream. Halo Top is a brand that champions well-being and helps people ignore pressures to be anything other than themselves.

After both qualitative and quantitative research, we discovered Halo Top’s audience is shackled by tremendous external and internal pressures. The amount of times people told themselves they “should” do something was standing in the way of allowing them to feel good. Additional customer research uncovered that 96 percent of Americans “should” themselves everyday.

So this year, we built on that insight and fought back against negative pressures with work that turns life’s “shoulds” into something good. This work empowers people to do what they want to do, showing that both new Halo Top fruit bars and pints are something they can enjoy when they defy the little voice insider their head telling them they “shouldn’t.”

Our campaign, Stop Shoulding Yourself, creates a new emotional connection with Halo Top’s audience. It challenges all the negative pressures that stand in the way of their happiness, and becomes an advocate to choose what’s right for them in all aspects of their life.

In our 2020 campaign, we achieved the below results:

• 22 point lift in ad awareness
• 51 point lift in message association
• 9 point lift in purchase intent

This year’s campaign launched in April 2021. Check back soon to see our results!