| Winner | DB Breweries |
| Marketing initiative | Export Ultra Cold Call Back Service |
| Marketing partners | Special, Special PR, dentsu Aotearoa, Raydar |
| Finalists | Auckland Transport, Auto Trader NZ, BNZ, Farrah’s, Fonterra Brands Oceania, Goodman Fielder (highly commended), Kiwibank (three campaigns), McDonald’s, Popeyes Louisiana Chicken NZ, Restaurant Brands – KFC NZ, Toyota NZ |
| Judges’ comments | “Nice, nice baby! Yo, stop! Collaborate and listen, a genius idea with a bold new mission. Execution – tight, no delay, saved beer by the crate on a hot summer day. Real-world problem, solved with flair, fun and fresh, got that Kiwi air. Big respect to the crew on the grind, pulled it all off in record time. Truth so simple, you know it’s legit, every Kiwi out here relate to it. Wide appeal, had us all in cheer, cheers to the team – now pass me a beer!” |
Chillin’ with the Ice Man
Export Ultra hit the spot for beer lovers with its Cold Call Back Service that saw rapper Vanilla Ice save brews from disaster.
Since 2021, beer category volume sales had declined by 8% as drinkers shifted toward RTDs. With Export Ultra losing relevance, the team looked beyond the traditional playbook to bring it back into the national conversation during summer – the make-or-break season for beer brands.
In summer 2024/25, more than 400 different beer products lined supermarket and liquor store shelves across Aotearoa.
While many of them are backed by big global marketing budgets – Export Ultra, owned by Kiwi beverage brand DB Breweries, isn’t.
Who won, who they were up against and what the judges had to say.
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To win the moment, Export Ultra tackled a struggle every beer lover knows all too well: you pop a beer in the freezer to chill it quickly, then forget about it. By the time you remember, it’s frozen, expanded and exploded.
The team even ran a quantitative study to validate it as a nationwide problem – and the result spoke volumes.
Over 55% of Kiwis had accidentally frozen a beer in the past year alone. That shared crisis gave Export Ultra a clear mission: create a service that saves beers from the freezer.
The beer-saving utility featured 90s rap icon Vanilla Ice – known for calling out things that are ‘too cold, too cold’.
To reach people at home during those crucial moments when beers were most at risk, Kiwis could text Ice when their beers went into the freezer. Exactly 34 minutes later, they’d get a ‘cold call’ back from him, reminding them to retrieve their beer at the point of perfect chill.
To bring the campaign to life in stores, it featured a gift with purchase: a free bag of ice with every 24-pack of Export Ultra.
From mass media to mobile, advertising to activation, the campaign followed its audience all summer long. As a result, it resonated with beer drinkers nationwide, reshaped public perception of Export Ultra and drove growth in a declining beer market.
This story comes from NZ Marketing magazine issue 84, Sept-Nov 2025. Why not subscribe? Get four issues a year for just $50 (including delivery) if you autorenew.
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