Magnum brand boss on making sure nobody feels ‘shortchanged’ by expensive ice-cream
The cost of living crisis has been driving some shoppers to consider own-brand alternatives. As Magnum’s global brand vice-president Ben Curtis tells The Drum, however, the premium ice-cream maker has been using this behavior to its advantage.
Selling luxury ice cream / Magnum
Unilever-owned brand Magnum is using advertising and product innovation to position itself as a luxury ice-cream worthy of its price point.
“We spend a lot of time trying to ensure the product is superior,” says Ben Curtis, its global brand vice-president. “The most important thing for a brand like Magnum is to deliver a superior product that people think is worth paying for and I would hate to think that someone felt shortchanged by Magnum.”
Curtis wants to protect Magnum’s “distinctive” assets at all costs, he says.
Magnum is a premium ice-cream, with a box of three retailing at £4 in Tesco, compared with an own-brand box at £1.60. Curtis admits that during the cost of living crisis, Magnum lost market share to supermarket alternatives. But rather than finding ways to make Magnum cheaper, as other brands have through reduced quality or ‘shrinkflation,’ Curtis has fought to protect and even elevate Magnum’s quality.
He gives the example of the gold foil on the inside of the ice-cream, which the procurement and supply chain teams often tell him to remove to make savings. “The gold foil is reinforcing the brand’s specialness. When you open a Magnum and you take out the stick, I want that to be as special as the first bite. That anticipation is really important; you spent money on it and I want the holistic experience to be really special.”
Through its marketing, Curtis also wanted to acknowledge that people are buying knock-off ice-creams, which led to the recent brand campaign ‘Stick to the Original.’ The humorous campaign sees a woman leave her husband after he brought a pack of fake Magnum, leading her to wonder what else he had been faking.
“It was a bit nerve-racking when you talk about yourself in this way. You don’t want to be arrogant and you do have to realize people are feeling the pinch. People are making choices and they are valid choices.”
For Curtis, it’s much easier to market a great product than to use advertising to make up for a less functioning product. “Everyone should feel Magnum is value for money and it lifted my mood and it was worth indulging in.”
Landing the ice-cream season
When launching new flavors, Magnum’s marketing team works on its spring campaign two years in advance. “You have to hit that moment in spring or the start of summer and if you miss that moment, you miss your year,” he explains. The global team, alongside its agency MullenLowe, decides the mix and creates the advertising, which gives the local marketers enough time to plan how to execute the campaign.
‘Pleasure Express’ is Magnum’s 2024 new flavor launch campaign, which brings together Iggy Pop and Siouxsie Sioux for a rendition of Pop’s song The Passenger. The minute-long ad is set on a train and is intended to represent Magnum taking people on a mood-enhancing journey.
“We wanted music that is evocative and moody and enhances the beauty of the film,” he says. “Sometimes, as a brand manager, you’ve got to separate your taste from what’s right for the brand, but for me, I love Iggy Pop and I thought this would be amazing.”
Magnum’s beach party at the Cannes Film Festival will kick off its ice-cream season. “It’s the time people start thinking about ice-cream and the shop owners start putting out their ice-cream cabinets. The world’s media are there on the French Riviera and it’s very star-studded but has a very professional performance,” Curtis says, adding that Magnum’s distinctive assets are “timeless,” just like the illustrious film event.
“We are quite good at building a look and feel for Magnum, a universe that when you see it feels each time like it’s playing to the codes you’d expect from Magnum.”