Although Klondike® enjoys widespread awareness, in the elusive target of men 25 - 35, the ice cream bar was not part of their consideration set. In 2009, Klondike® asked us to help increase brand awareness among this target and boost overall sales by 5%. Recognizing that the target rarely visits brand sites and surfs for entertainment, Story developed a unique “Micro-Bytes” marketing campaign — a multiple-touchpoint experience that reached the target via video games, humorous videos, a Facebook app, and more.

Comedian Michael Ian Black was enlisted to approach real people on the street to ask what ridiculous things they would do for a Klondike® Bar (now that it had a thicker chocolatey shell). This video content lived in the Klondike® Man Cave, on a Klondike® Man Cave YouTube channel, and was also syndicated through rich media placements.

As a repository for the entertainment provided by Klondike®, we created the tongue-in-cheek Man Cave, a guy-friendly room hidden behind the door to The Freezer brand site. Within its walls were a video game (“The Adventures of Khaki Pants Pete”), a video series starring Michael Ian Black (“What Would You Do for a Klondike® Bar Now?”), and more.

Knowing the target enjoys the nostalgic appeal of classic video games, we created a retro web game and iPhone app that chronicles the life of a suburban dad formerly known as Pete ‘the Pounder’ Powers, determined to regain his mancard. Distributed via banners and social networks, gaming sites and game blogs, the game saw enormous engagement numbers and had players clamoring for more.

Since young men like to give each other a hard time — especially when it’s done in a public forum — we created a Klondike® Virtual Roast on Facebook. Klondike® Bars now boast a thicker chocolatey shell, so it was only natural to encourage the target to see just how thick his friend’s shell was. This Roast theme was continued with a sponsorship of the Official Friars Club Roast of Joan Rivers on Comedy Central.

This was a successful effort to turn a potential negative product shortage into a positive PR event. When Klondike® Bar demand grew so large that the company ran out of its iconic foil wrapper, they were forced to resort to a white cardboard box. We capitalized on the situation by rewarding customers for continuing to purchase Klondike® Bars even without their foil wrappers. By all measurements, Story’s Micro-Byte campaign for Klondike® was an enormous success, far exceeding all of the goals set. By the end of the campaign, the target not only craved Klondike® Bars, they were wondering what the brand was going to do next.