Virtual Taste Test
- Brand
- Ben & Jerry's
- Year
- 2012
- Objective
- Engagement
- Industry
- Food & Drink
- Mechanic
- Arcade & Action
- Platform
- App
- Agency
- Silver & Partners
- With
- Resn
Objective
Ben & Jerry's wanted to introduce Greek Frozen Yogurt, the brand's new product line, through mobile advertising rather than a standard banner. Marketing manager Katie O'Brien framed it as a chance to test Apple's iAd format directly and build a richer experience that used the phone's own hardware to drive trial and awareness. The brand also wanted the ad to carry its usual sense of humor rather than read as a straight product pitch.
Solution
The ad lives inside other people's iPhone apps as an iAd unit — there's no separate site or app to leave for. Tapping the banner doesn't lead to a landing page; it opens straight into the game, right there in the ad space. The front camera turns on and snaps the player's face, then sticks a pair of ridiculous cartoon lips over it. From there the player tries all four new flavors one by one, catching scoops of falling ice cream in a short arcade-style mini-game for each. The whole thing — photo, lips, and all four tastings — plays out without ever leaving the ad unit.
- 1
The game surfaces inside a full-page iAd banner: tapping a Ben & Jerry's ad for the new Greek Frozen Yogurt flavors expands it into a self-contained "Virtual Taste Test" without leaving the host app.
- 2
The player opens the front-facing camera and takes a selfie, which becomes the on-screen "taster."
- 3
Cartoon "wacky lips" are pasted onto the captured face, turning it into a caricature avatar for the rest of the session.
- 4
In the core arcade loop, scoops of ice cream fall from the top of the screen and the player catches them with their own lips-and-face avatar, standing in for tasting each of the four new flavors.
- 5
The entire experience — banner tap, selfie, face edit, and catch game — runs inside the ad unit itself, with no handoff to a browser or the App Store.
