White House Press Secretary, Sean Spicer, has been holding on to an over 7 year beef with the “ice cream of the future” company Dippin’ Dots according to a recent Forbes article.
I consider myself as more of a traditional ice cream kind of guy, you know; Breyer’s, Ben & Jerry’s, Turkey Hill, even soft serve. But I’ve never gone out of my way to tear down other brands and types of frozen treats the way Sean Spicer has. He has been feuding with the company as as far back as 2010 when they ran out of vanilla at the Washington Nationals baseball game!
The folks at Dippin’ Dots, including CEO Scott Fischer, decided to use this to their advantage. Believe it or not, in 2017, this was considered news and before long both Sean Spicer and Dippin’ Dots were trending on social media. The company’s first course of action was to release a rather comical open letter from Fischer to Spicer proposing an ice cream social for the White House and press corps.
Dippin’ Dots handled what could have been a controversy that hurt their brand with poise, they followed rule number one of large companies in the social media era. That is, be honest and transparent. In doing so, they remained true to their brand and it’s values, which over anything else seems to be having fun.
In 2017, companies need to realize that a large portion of media and advertising is in social media. Many individuals make buying decisions based on what they’ve heard online. That is on Twitter or Facebook, whatever people are talking about. It seems Dippin’ Dots realized this, their marketing team didn’t ignore this story or remain silent, they used it to their advantage. In getting in the mix with the White House Press Secretary, they created a story and controlled the narrative. They got their name out there to people that otherwise wouldn’t hear about it. It’s clear that upper management among the company is forward thinking, and the way they handled this situation made them likeable and gave the company some strong personality. I don’t know if the ice cream social is going to happen in the White House, or if Sean Spicer has changed his mind about the ice cream of the future. I do know that myself and many others are reading a pretty entertaining story about a big ice cream company based in Kentucky that I would have otherwise never seen. That’s some solid advertising for sure.
Thoughts by Brendan 