Deck the aisles with synthetic ice beneath the shopper’s trolley. Approximately 250 meters worth are temporarily atop the floor of the Iceland store in the Stratford district of East London. And for those who may be less than steady after slipping on a pair of skates, there are “pinguin aids” on skis to hold on to while sliding from cabinet to case in the frozen food specialty shop.
“At Iceland we know Christmas is an exciting time, however it can be a struggle for lots of families as there’s so much to do. We wanted to add some magic to Christmas food shopping and the in-store skating experience has certainly done that,” said Neil Hayes, marketing director for the Deeside, Wales, UK-headquartered retailer.
According to research findings gleaned by the chain, 89% of British children find holiday food shopping to be a drag and 83% of the parents are not keen on the scene either. No doubt the youngsters would rather be checking out toy stores, or browsing online for computer games or other electronic playthings. So the Iceland marketing team hired the Taylor Herring public relations team to come up with a modern-day promotion to stimulate visions of sugar plums to dance in the heads of consumers – or at least to get lots of folks talking about their unique “Shopping on Ice” experience. St Marks Studios was engaged to produce a creative video to document the ice capades.
Who knows, if the slick campaign gains enough sales traction at the Stratford location, the new ice age of frozen food retailing could expand throughout Great Britain during the winter wonderland season. Shoppers’ signatures on indemnification release forms may first be in order, however, to keep the slip-and-fall lawyers at bay.
