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Trade your sunburn for buffalo sauce—or maybe just some sprinkles. Ice-cream brand Häagen-Dazs will appear in next year’s Super Bowl for the first time, it announced this week.
The brand is the second to confirm its Super Bowl buy, following the shoe brand Skechers, which announced its media buy in May.
While it’ll be Häagen-Dazs’s first time in the big game, parent company Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream ran a spot for its Drumstick brand in this year’s Super Bowl. The success of the Drumstick Super Bowl ad helped influence Häagen-Dazs’s move to get into the game, Rachel Jaiven, marketing director for Häagen-Dazs, told Marketing Brew.
Play ball: In recent years, Häagen-Dazs has doubled down on live sports, purchasing ads during NBA games, the NHL playoffs, the NFL Draft, and MLB games, Jaiven said.
“It’s must-watch TV these days, and that’s where we want to be,” she said.
Jaiven declined to say how much time the brand purchased, when specifically the ad will run during the game, or which Häagen-Dazs products might be highlighted. It will, however, run as
a continuation of the brand’s long-running “That’s Dazs” campaign.
Sugar crash: This year’s Super Bowl saw a sugar rush of confectionary brands entering the game: Drumstick was joined by Nerds, M&Ms, Reeses, Oreo, and the chocolate company Lindt.
The investment comes as the sweet and snacking category continues to experience the ripple effects of consumers taking GLP-1s like Ozempic and Wegovy. According to a Morgan Stanley survey, ice-cream consumption could fall 5.3% by 2035.
When asked about the effects of GLP-1s on the company’s marketing strategy, Jaiven pointed to the brand’s mini-sizes, as well as other Dreyer’s offerings like Outshine frozen-fruit bars and low-fat brand Skinny Cow.
“Preferences might shift across time,” she said, “but [ice cream] is always going to have a place in people’s lives.”