For most Swedes, childhood memories include summer days at the beach. And in many of them, a GB Glace ice cream plays a central role. The campaign idea was to bring the audience back to that nostalgic summer feeling—and we did.
With limited time on our hands, the task was to evoke ice-cream nostalgia in an emotional yet cohesive way, with a 'fresh retro' vibe". The campaign had to appeal both to younger audiences and to those who were kids in the '70s and '80s. We wanted to recreate the kind of places that felt like the beaches of our childhood – real in feeling, though not necessarily real in origin. The team wanted to create nostalgia but had no convincing imagery readily available. Cue, AI production.
GB Glace wanted to revive the feeling of Swedish summer holidays – and remind people that their childhood is still around, waiting in the freezer. But sending a photographer across the country – or back in time – wasn’t exactly an option. So using detailed prompting using the AI tools in WPP Open, the team conjured up an idyllic beach on the south coast, a sunlit lake up north, the smooth granite cliffs of the west coast, and a wooden pier with Denmark shimmering across the sound. Different places, same feeling. Then we simply added the ice creams. Just take a bite, and you are back. The campaign ran online as well as OOH, which was made possible by state-of-the-art upscaling tools.
The GB Glace campaign truly appealed to the target audience: we got an engagement rate that reached 85% higher than the previous summer campaign, proving that the nostalgic approach really touched people and inspired them to engage with the brand. But it didn't stop there...
Sender 91% (benchmark 72%)
Message 87% (benchmark 64%)
Positive effect 68% (benchmark 48%)
Campaign awareness 30% (last year 16%)
