French’s toasts National Mustard Day with on-brand ice cream flavor

Dive Brief:

• McCormick brand French’s announced a new ice cream flavor based on its core product, mustard, ahead of National Mustard Day on Aug. 3, according to details shared with Marketing Dive.
• Created with Coolhaus Ice Cream, French’s Mustard Ice Cream is served with a pretzel cookie. The flavor will be available at Coolhaus’ main location in Culver City, California, from Aug. 2-4 and Aug. 9-11. Additionally, French’s will run a Mustard Ice Cream Truck around New York City Aug. 1-2 and in the Hamptons on Aug. 3.
• French’s is making an at-home recipe available to bring the unusual flavor to bowls and cones everywhere. The brand encourages celebrants to share images of their Mustard Day homages on social media with the hashtags #Frenchs and #MustardIceCream.

Dive Insight:

Consumers don’t typically associate ice cream with mustard, but French’s is keying into a few trends popular with desirable segments like millennials, including food (or ice cream) trucks and unique flavors to experiment with. The curiosity factor may be enough to drive attention to the campaign, and French’s is attempting to extend the conversation online through social media sharing.

The timing of the campaign lines up to a holiday for mustard enthusiasts, and French’s isn’t alone in adding the condiment to some unusual food items. There are already mustard-flavored cheeses, pizzas and soda for the occasion.

Experiential marketing, such as odd ice cream flavors available via a special truck or restaurant locations, remains popular among brands. A study last year by performance marketing agency Merkle and Leo found that 72% of millennial women prefer to spend on experiences, and 54% said experiences will drive their biggest purchases, pointing to how brands can more deeply engage consumers with creative, in-person marketing.

The peripatetic ice cream truck turns this occasion into a kind of pop-up activation, with the featured treat available for short times in different locations. In a similar vein, Baskin-Robbins recently turned to an adapted ice cream truck to scoop out flavors connected to the third season of Netflix’s “Stranger Things.”& Arby’s also recently announced that it will bring a food truck to Area 51 in recognition of a meme event where people are threatening to storm the government facility that conspiracy theorists have long claimed houses aliens.