How Strategic Communication and Digital Media Drove Off‑Season Growth

How Home City Ice Turned Contraseasonality into Measurable Growth

Background Information

Home City Ice, the largest family‑owned ice company in North America, faced a uniquely difficult communication challenge: ice is universally used, yet almost entirely invisible in consumers’ minds. Despite its century‑long history and national footprint across 160 locations in 25 states, the brand operates in a category that rarely earns attention, making it a quiet giant with a hidden value story.

Compared to refrigerator ice, a proprietary multi‑step purification and freezing process produces cleaner, better‑tasting, longer‑lasting ice. Yet these advantages were virtually invisible to consumers.

The core question became: could we increase offseason sales by redefining the value of Home City Ice bagged ice in consumers’ minds? To answer it, we needed to uncover what people truly value about ice, identify which benefits resonated most, and design an in‑market test capable of showing measurable and profitable impact.

Challenges

Despite strong brand equity, the work needed to overcome several challenges:

• Seasonal limitations, with the majority of their business occurring in warmer months. That offseason gap represented a significant untapped business opportunity.
• The need to prove marketing ROI.
• As a low-involvement category, there’s limited public knowledge on the benefit of professionally purified ice vs homemade refrigerator ice.
• Influence purchase behavior through education and perception shift.

Breaking through required a solid research-backed messaging strategy rooted in what consumers genuinely value, supported by a smart media strategy that moved the sales needle.

These challenges meant the communication approach needed to aim to redefine the category, not just advertise within it.

Objectives

The campaign aimed to deliver measurable business impact:

1. Increase off season bagged ice sales within targeted markets.
2. Validate whether paid media can generate a measurable, incremental lift in transactions, and revenue.
3. Identify the most compelling consumer message concept.
4. Reach incremental households beyond current high frequency purchasers.

Methods and Strategies

Research Driven Message Development

Qualitative and quantitative research played a central role in shaping the campaign direction. Consumer and category insights helped shape a clear, focused communication strategy.

Campaign messaging centered on a simple but powerful idea: consumers care deeply about health, wellness, and the products they trust in everyday moments. By emphasizing purity, quality, and reliability of their ice, the creative positioned the brand as a source of confidence and peace of mind.

Media Strategy & Targeting

Paid media activity was evaluated through a controlled test designed to understand the impact of digital investment on offseason sales. Media channels were selected to support different stages of the consumer journey, from awareness to conversion.

Digital Display

• Used to build awareness and deliver educational messaging that reinforced the value of professionally purified ice.
• Research identified the target audience that is highly responsive to the messaging.
• Combined behavioral signals with contextual signals.
• Selected placements to efficiently reach relevant audiences.

Throughout the campaign, we optimized creative, audiences, and ad placements to maximize performance.

Retail Media

• Used to drive incremental retail transactions by reaching shoppers at the point of decision.
• Targeted high‑intent shoppers using retailer first‑party data and relevant behavioral/contextual signals.
• Excluded existing Home City Ice buyers from the last 12 months to ensure sales were incremental.

Results

Retail Media Test Market

• Measurable YOY sales growth
• Outperformed YOY sales growth in off-season vs all other retailers

Digital Display Test Market

• Held seasonal sales steady post-summer
• CTR outperformed industry benchmarks

The digital media test confirmed that reframing value around health and quality drove consideration and increased offseason sales, showcasing that strategic communication can impact behavior, even in a category consumers don’t ‘shop’ and rarely think about.