This is a happy day for The Grocer, as we reveal the return of Funny Feet, the iconic 1980s strawberry-flavoured kids ice cream. It’s not the first retro brand to be dusted down and polished up, but it’s been brought back thanks to our Bring Back a Brand campaign, and that makes us smile. The year-long campaign, launched on 14 January 2012, had three aims:

Video: Funny Feet returns

1. In our search to find the most fondly remembered brand, we wanted to engage with readers in remembering The Grocer’s glorious past, as we celebrated our 150th anniversary.

2. At the same time, we wanted to demonstrate The Grocer’s modern multi and social-media capabilities, driving traffic to our new website to vote, and using Twitter and a dedicated Facebook page to deliver the groundswell of public opinion that would make a manufacturer sit up and take notice.

3. Above all, we wanted to show that The Grocer wasn’t (and isn’t) any old trade title: that, with its rich tradition as an independent source of topical, newsworthy exclusives and agenda-setting opinion, The Grocer was capable of reaching out not only to its loyal B2B readership but to a far wider consumer audience, and thus helping to shape the trade itself.

” With the return of Funny Feet, The Grocer’s Bring Back a Brand campaign achieved everything we set out to achieve. And more.”

Adam Leyland, Editor

The stats show clearly that we achieved the first two aims. Traffic to our website and followers on our Twitter handle @TheGrocer more than doubled, as we received 50+ new nominations and over 1,000 votes on our website. And, as we knew when we built a dedicated Facebook page with an incenvitised voting app, our campaign went viral, receiving almost 10,000 likes from nostalgic consumers, and with several dead or dormant brands attracting thousands of votes.

But the ultimate test of our campaign was always our ability to Bring Back a Brand. With Funny Feet set to return on 2 September, we’ve achieved everything we set out to achieve. And more.

Unilever is donating 10p from every multipack it sells to Save The Children, and hopes to raise £500,000. So, thanks for your help and support. And go eat a Funny Feet.

Read this: How The Grocer brought back a brand

Topics