Promotion of the Year Contest

The Promotion of the Year Contest is now open to ALL ice cream store owners in the United States.

Just submit your promotion to The National Dipper by September 20, 2023 to enter the contest.

Win a beautiful plaque engraved with your store name, suitable to hang in your store for all to see. AND the promotion will be featured in an upcoming issue of The National Dipper.

Promotion must have taken place in 2023. Entries must be received by September 20, 2023. Include a detailed description of your promotion. Include your name, store name, address, phone and email. State the objectives and results that were met by your promotion.

Entries are judged on the basis of ORIGINALITY, creativity, objectives accomplished, presentation to the consumer and how easily the promotion can be adapted in other ice cream retail businesses.

Send your promotion to: Lynda Utterback

The National Dipper lynda@nationaldipper.com

Questions? Please call 847/301-8400

Deadline: September 20, 2023

QUESTION: What was the best promotion you ran in your store in 2022?

DAY: I think that the best promotion we have offered is a brand new oneour Mystic Sampler. For $10, our customers can try as many samples of our various ice creams in one visit as they wish. The samples are the size of a golf ball and served in groups of three or four at a time.

GUGLIELMO: We have backed off on some of our big promotions. Before the pandemic, we had a season opener Easter egg hunt and a season ending haunted miniature golf, both events would double or triple the daily receipts in the parlor. They were done as charity events where the proceeds of admission would go to local charities. We now try to do a special sundae changing it every other week or so.

JOHNSON: We have tried to not discount over prices. We have positioned ourselves as a premium offering and sacrificing over price doesn’t work for us. We have rotated ice cream and froyo flavors more to create buzz and a desire to come try something new.

LAWRENCE: With the lack of quality workers there really was no “formal” promotion, as in years past. What I did do was weekly mystery flavors, along with a unique sundae or frappe posts on Facebook.

PLOTTNER: Specialty dessert items pre-ordered for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Also, have a wide variety of non-dairy and gluten free options and generally being very careful and aware around allergies. We have many customers that aren’t comfortable at other ice cream stores due to cross contamination and allergens.

RINEARSON: Create your own ice cream flavor

SCHEMBRI: Typically on national ice cream day we give away ice cream to everyone for free. In 2022 we charged a small fee to help recoup costs.

STURGILL: The best promotion I ran in my store in 2022 was specialty Peanutbutter Parfait. This included three layers of our peanut butter custard, three layers of hot fudge, our special peanut buttersauce, and chopped Reese®’s cups, all topped off with whipped cream. This was posted on our Facebook and reached 50,000 people with 219 comments and 108 shares. People asked for weeks to have this creation made.

WHITTINGTON: Christmas in July, Santa, Xmas flavors and our Oktoberfest celebration.

QUESTION: What sets you apart from your competition?

DAY: We have some wonderful competitors in our area. There are several things that make us different…we have an ice cream truck that allows us to be mobile and do a variety of events, our ice cream is homemade, half of our flavors have a bit of alcohol, and we have a hippy/pop culture theme with live entertainment and game shows every night of the week.

GUGLIELMO: Our dedication and enjoyment in what we do. Being part of the community, always helping to donate ice cream or gift certificates to events or needs in the area. Our tag line to our employees: “The Cleanest Friendliest Place in Town”.

JOHNSON: We offer more topping options than any ice cream shop in the country. We are up to 210 different toppings. Guests, especially children, have a “Willy Wonka” moment when they walk in the door and see the selection. It makes it fun to come to Cool Spoons. Like I mentioned before, we sell happiness!

LAWRENCE: Our guests come to us not merely for ice cream, they come for the total experience. In the height of the season they will stand in line for over an hour, with the smell of the made to order waffle cones drifting through the air. Once getting inside our small shop they are on sensory overload with all the Coca Cola memorabilia on display. We do not rush our guests, we will explain flavors, offer tastes and spend as much time with them as they require. When they finally get their ice cream in their hand, there is nothing better to hear from a guest than “this looks too good to eat!”

PLOTTNER: In our immediate area, we are the only ice cream store making their own ice cream. We offer unique flavors and incorporate a lot of feedback from the customers. We also have ice cream cakes and specialty desserts at the holidays that other local stores don’t offer.

RINEARSON: Out of 25 staff, 21 have a disability. I have expectations that each person will learn to do everything in the shop. For some, it’s a long learning curve. It’s OK because they are generally employees for life - unlike high school and college students. Our ice cream is phenomenally good. We take recommendations by customers to make new flavors or bring back their favorites. We do off site catering with an ice cream cart and a van for transportation. I try not to say NO to anything.

SCHEMBRI: Our customer service is unparalleled. Every review we’ve received has been unsolicited and in most cases we’re far ahead of the competition in terms of 5 star reviews. This in turn helps attract new customers. We also don’t add any artificial colors or flavors to our ice cream (sorry Superman!) and we place a heavy emphasis on our carefulness to those with allergies.

STURGILL: What sets our business apart from the competition is that we serve only the best quality frozen custard and that we have a different flavor of custard every day. All together, we have about thirty to forty flavors that we rotate throughout the months.

WHITTINGTON: Freshly churned ice creams, using local ingredients and local liquor distilleries for our moonshine and other adult flavors. v