Entry 2: Be a Manager

Ben and Jerry's Chunk Fest



Singapore’s first ever Ice-cream festival; Chunk Fest, was held at Fort Canning green on the 6th of December, a Saturday.

The objective of this chunk fest was to promote and introduce 12 new flavors which had not been launched in the Singapore market. Besides selling the 34 flavors in total, colorful minivans were stationed along the sidelines selling souvenirs, snacks and drinks. It upholds to their fun-loving image where their ice-cream agenda is filled with punk and enjoyment.

Besides, grooving to the music of the best local bands, participating in other activities such as crystal ball and tarot card readings by gypsies, face painting and many more, most people would not forget the main objective of this festival; which is to have fun and eat their ice-cream! An ice-cream eating competition called ‘Vermonster’ was held, record time being 1 minute and 5 seconds!

The Djs made the people danced to music with the new ice-cream flavor ‘Jamaican me Crazy’. The organizers did not slacken in the entertainment area and made sure every corner is filled with joy and colour.

The date for this event was well planned. It was during the year end holidays which justified the whole happy-go-lucky mood. Ben and Jerry’s is extremely popular amongst teenagers and young children. However, there is no doubt that there are loyal adult fans too. Basically, it attracts anyone who loves flavorful desserts and their famous chunky pieces of add-ons in their ice-cream.

Publicity for Chunk Fest was not heavy. There were not any newspapers or magazine advertisements. Neither was there television or radio broadcasts. However, patrons who visit Ben and Jerry’s stores often would come to know about it through posters and flyers which were given out.

Staffs at their store would also give patrons gentle reminders to head down to Fort Canning Green during that Saturday to participate in Chunk Fest. Besides that, online forums and Ben and Jerry’s official website announced the festival several months before the event.

I presumed that it was the word of mouth which was most effective that had gotten the information around about Chunk Fest. Therefore, I do not belittle the word of mouth as the situation becomes more personal as it is told to you by someone familiar and therefore tend to be more believable and reliable. Thus, the success rate of a turnout of about 8,500 people at the Chunk Fest despite a slight downpour in the early afternoon proved likewise.

I was pretty shocked to realize that there were few or rather no media coverage of this event even though the draw of the crowd was quite impressive and activities organized were interesting and thorough throughout the entire event.

I assumed that the reason why the media did not cover this event was because the whole festival felt very private. From that I meant that Ben and Jerry’s did not advertise it publicly. It could probably mean that only regulars and enthusiasts of their brand of ice-cream would have heard of this event.

Even though I did think that media coverage before the event would help boost the coming crowd, I liked the idea of how they made Chunk Fest feel very special and had this homely feel, as only the real Ben and Jerry’s fans would know about it.

I personally feel that this event was a great success. The aim was definitely achieved. The atmosphere was there. New flavors were promoted. Thousands of Ben and Jerry’s ice-cream scoops were sold. The entertainment was a blast and people certainly had fun.

Depending on the turnout rate which was planned and expected before an event, I would positively continue to keep such low key publicity if I want a crowd of about 8,500. However, I would make more queues for the ice-cream seeing how long the people had to queue up for. Make the people happy, make them buy more ice-cream. Wouldn’t that be great?

justin, alethea and I