Magnum's Grand Prix-winning plan to sell ice cream in winter / Magnum "Find Your Summer"

The problem

Winter is the slow season for the ice cream industry. In the UK, January gets an average of just 2.4 hours of sunshine a day, and four in ten Brits say they feel more down in winter than in summer. It's the exact season when people crave pleasure the most, yet the one where they're most forced to go without it.

The insight

The craving for ice cream doesn't actually disappear in winter. People just hold themselves back because of the assumption that "ice cream is a summer thing." So why not flip that thinking and treat summer as a feeling rather than a temperature? A brief burst of winter sunshine and the moment you bite into a Magnum could both count as "summer."

The idea

Every film and photo was shot entirely in black and white. It's an ice cream ad that barely shows the product, and it was filmed in winter, of all times. One by one, they stripped away the usual conventions of the industry. The centerpiece was a DOOH campaign that used real-time weather data to pinpoint exactly where the sun was breaking through across London, down to a 1-2 km radius, and placed ads right there. Beacons also sent out discount notifications for nearby stores.

What happened

The campaign won the Grand Prix in the Outdoor category at the 2024 Cannes Lions, along with multiple Gold, Silver, and Bronze Lions, and was also recognized at Clio, The One Show, and D&AD. It delivered Magnum's best-ever low-season sales, with sales of its core range up 66.3% and sales across all products up 38.9%.

Afterthought

Black and white, hiding the product, shooting in winter—even to an untrained eye, it sounds like a reckless combination. And yet the sheer conviction behind that one idea, "summer is a feeling," translated directly into both the numbers and the trophies. It feels a bit thin to convey that courage without any images, but I hope it comes through anyway.

Awards

• Cannes Lions Gold 2024
• Cannes Lions Grand Prix 2024

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