Photo source: Marketing Interactive
Grinding Japanese matcha on a stone mill, painting with color made from strawberries and solving a puzzle that reveals what goes into ice cream are not activities usually expected during a city tram ride. Häagen-Dazs brought them together in the Art of Richness Tram, a mobile activation that presents the ingredients and the making of four of the brand’s recognizable flavors on the streets of Hong Kong.
Launched in mid-August, the campaign divides the tram into four themed experiences dedicated to vanilla, chocolate, matcha and strawberry. Instead of a traditional product presentation, each flavor has been given its own interactive demonstration, allowing the brand to turn its story of quality and carefully selected ingredients into something visitors can experience for themselves.
In the Vanilla Garden, an interactive puzzle reveals that Häagen-Dazs vanilla ice cream is made with six natural ingredients. Chocolate receives a different treatment: at the interactive Cocoa Scale station, visitors explore the composition of Belgian Chocolate ice cream, whose base now contains 72 percent cocoa.
The upper floor of the tram is reserved for the Matcha Studio, where traditional stone grinding introduces the ceremonial-grade Japanese matcha used by the brand in its ice cream. In the Strawberry Garden, the story of ingredients literally becomes a creative material: visitors can paint with natural color made from real strawberries, connecting the experience with the fact that Häagen-Dazs uses real fruit without artificial colors in its strawberry ice cream.
Behind the four stations is a broader message about what the brand considers the foundation of its distinctive texture and flavor. Häagen-Dazs bases its recipes on fresh cream, milk, sugar and eggs, without preservatives, stabilizers, artificial colors or palm oil. The Art of Richness Tram turns these otherwise difficult-to-see product characteristics into the central content of the campaign.
The activation continues beyond the tram. From August 21 to 23, the Art of Richness Crystal Bus will stop in Tsim Sha Tsui, Tai Wai and Central, with access organized through advance registration linked to the purchase of Häagen-Dazs products at selected retailers. During the ride, visitors can expect flavor-inspired experiences, a mini pack of ice cream and coupons for their next purchase.
The story that begins with ingredients therefore ends where the brand wants to bring the audience back: to the product itself, after they have first encountered vanilla, chocolate, matcha and strawberry as experiences, and only then once again as flavors.
