You put your beer in the freezer to cool it down. You forget about it. It explodes. It’s so annoying. Over the last 12 months, more than half of New Zealand has accidentally frozen a beer[1]meaning millions of beers have met an unnecessary ice demise.
If your beer is Export Ultra (and you’re in New Zealand), that doesn’t need to happen. Export Ultra and Special have “brought back a blast from your past to prevent a blast in your future”. Vanilla Ice will call you 34 minutes later top remind you to check the freezer. Yes, the real Vanilla Ice.
Opting in to the The Export Ultra Cold Call Back Service is simple and completely free of charge. Put your beer in the freezer and text ‘ICE ICE’ to 423.
The campaign leads with TV spot set at Vanilla Ice’s Miami mansion, as he goes about his day-to-day tasks – such as casually polishing his wall of records or watering his 10-acre garden – while he makes daily calls to New Zealanders.
Special led strategy, creative ideation and production with support from RSA Films’ directing duo, Peter Martin – aka Peter Livolsi and Martin Dix – and Heckler Sydney. Special PR spearheaded earned communications with targeted media relations and influencer activity – ensuring all the VIPs enjoyed the V.I.P. (Vanilla Ice Promotion).
Dentsu led media planning, buying and implementation across channels including online, OOH, digital audio, radio, television and social, while Raydar was responsible for bringing the campaign through the line with in-store and trade promotions across key retail partners.
Vanilla Ice has a rolling series of summer messages planned,, from rhymes for Valentine’s Day “Roses are red, violets are blue, ya boi Vanilla Ice got a reminder for you,” through to a pledge for a chilled Christmas, “I do my calls like I do my Christmas presents… they always come (w)rapped.”
Special New Zealand chief creative officer, Jonathan McMahon, commented, “We’ve all been there. You put beer in freezer to chill while you chill. But you chill too much, and they chill too much and then… BOOM. And as Vanilla Ice would agree, that ain’t chill. Luckily the rap legend is now here, all summer long, to personally call every New Zealander who needs a reminder to take their Export Ultra out of the freezer.
“And luckily the Export Ultra team have a great ambition to save beer, a brilliant sense of humour and a strong desire to free up their drinkers so they can enjoy their summers in this wonderful beer garden of ours. We are excited by the incredibly enjoyable film to promote it, brought to life by the amazing Peter Martin at RSA, and the endless calls from Vanilla Ice that are spoken, sung and rapped – he even threw in a bit of poetry because he’s sweet like that.”
Kelly Grindle, managing director at Special PR, added, “You can’t PR an advertising idea, but you can advertise a PR idea, and this is a true example of integrated marketing that shows Special at its best. We couldn’t ask for better partners than DB Breweries, who managed to turn around this entire campaign from concept to delivery in less than ten weeks.”
Vanilla Ice’s Export Ultra Cold Call Back Service will be saving Kiwi beers from December 2024 through to February 2025, because a frosty beer is cool, but a frozen beer? Ice-cold heartbreak.
[1] Independent research commissioned by DB Breweries during October 2024, collating answers from a sample size of 250 individual New Zealand-based respondents.
Credits:
Client: DB Breweries
Marketing Director: Fraser Shrimpton
Senior Marketing Manager: Kate Baars
Brand Manager: Lauren Parker Condon
Assistant Brand & Shopper Manager: Jordan Grace
Trade Marketing Manager: Annabel Buckley
Creative Agency: Special New Zealand
Founder, Creative Chairman, CEO NZ: Tony Bradbourne
Chief Creative Officers: Lisa Fedyszyn & Jonathan McMahon
Creative: Simon Watts
Art Director: Rhiana Merota
Executive Producer: Liz Garneau
Head of Production: Therese Bielawa
Senior Digital Producer: Matt Abraham
Social Editor: Hamish Kuka
Senior Business Manager: Courtney Spillane
Partner, Chief Strategy Officer: Rory Gallery
Group Strategy Director: Josh Taylor-Dadds
Group Strategy & CX Director: Ursula Nichols
Strategist: Nina Richardson
PR: Special PR
Managing Director: Kelly Grindle
Group PR Director: Natasha D’Souza
Senior PR Manager: Jessica Walker,
Media: Dentsu Aotearoa
Vanilla Ice, aka Robert Van Winkle represented by TQ Management Agency
TQ Management Agency: Chuck Quon & Tommy Quon
Foss Films for Vanilla Ice: Jon Foss
Production Company: RSA Films
Director: Peter Martin
President & Executive Producer: Luke Ricci
Executive Producer: Jenni Sprunger
Head of Production: Sarah Morrison
Producers: Liz Gonzalez & Beth Henning
1st AD: Rafael Herrera
DOP: Sean Porter
1st AC: Walter Rodriguez
Editor: Kevin Zimmerman
Composer: David Rothbaum
Online, VFX & Colour: Heckler Sydney
Executive Producer: Amy Jarman
Executive Creative Director: Jamie Watson
Flame: Julian Ford
Colourist: Ferg Rotherham
Recording Studios Florida: Recording Power Station
Producer, Mix Engineer, Director: Rob Roy
Senior Engineer: Brennan Fulton,
Assistant Engineer: Steven Ludwig
Sound: Liquid Studios
Engineer: Andy Morton
Producer: Tamara O’Neil
