Friendly’s wanted to create buzz around its second annual Free Ice Cream Day promotion; and it wanted to do so without significant promotional expenditure.

Castle focused efforts on online media and the critical mom blogger community. Castle connected with those who write about mom-friendly topics, as well as those who blog about “deals” or a frugal lifestyle. To further build buzz online, Castle developed an “ice cream treat profile" quiz for use on Friendly’s Facebook page to engage customers and reach their friends. The notion of sharing something free with a friend was created by Castle to stimulate viral activity.

Results: The Free Ice Cream Day announcement was the third most emailed article of the month on Boston.com, sent 973 times. Sampling increased from the previous year by 75 percent to 500,000 cones given away. The promotion was covered by more than 208 blog posts and 45 news site articles, as well as on popular sites such as TodayShow.com, DealSeekingMom.com, Walletpop.com and Associated Content. In addition, more than 5,600 people took the Facebook “ice cream treat profile” quiz.