Economist extends insect ice cream subs campaign into Denmark

Visitors to last week’s Eurofinance event in Copenhagen were given the chance to sample insect flavoured ice cream, courtesy of The Economist as the renowned business newspaper rolled out its subscription campaign further into Europe, this time at the major international cash and treasury management trade show.

Previously, the activity had focused on engaging with workers in the business districts of major cities across the globe, including London, Amsterdam, New York and Johannesburg. This was the second time it had been successfully run at a trade show, showing the experiential campaign’s versatility.

Brand ambassadors engage with potential Economist subscribers by offering them insect flavoured ice cream, the story being that eating insects could help relieve the impending world hunger crisis. The activity acts as a filter for those people most likely to be interested in the Economist by focusing on a typical issue that might appear in the magazine. They are then offered a discounted subscription.

“Recent activity in Europe has resulted in 200 subscriptions from a total of 15 days,” explained Daniel Hennessey, Senior Account Manager at Sense, which devised and runs the campaign. “Since the launch over the overall activity early last year, we have subscribed close to 12,500 customers over around 250 days.”

Commenting on the campaign to date, Marina Haydn, Senior Vice President Circulation and Retail Marketing at The Economist, said: “It has been fantastic to see results continually improving through the campaign run-time, and effectively become a new channel that steadily delivers results in the realm of offline marketing. We now see experiential as our key to marketing in the real world, real time.”