Pinkberry wants its guests to celebrate their not-so-horrible bosses. The frozen-yogurt brand partnered with Warner Bros. Entertainment to promote Horrible Bosses 2, premiering November 26, in a social media campaign that takes a positive spin on the movie’s premise.
“We haven’t had an official partnership before with Warner Bros. that’s being promoted in the way this is,” says Laura Jakobsen, senior vice president of marketing and design at Pinkberry. “The brand, in its 10 years, has always had a strong celebrity following, and we’ve had a lot of unsolicited placement because so many celebrities are consumers of the brand.”
Rumor has it, Jakobsen says, that one of the movie’s characters aims to become a Pinkberry franchisee. “[The character] does get some money to pursue being a franchisee and gets off the elevator in our corporate office at the end,” she says. “It was a natural integration where movie executives came and asked us to partner and be part of the script.”
To get Pinkberry fans excited about the upcoming premiere, the fro-yo chain will host a social media contest across Facebook and Twitter, inviting consumers to share stories exemplifying how inspiring, fun and motivating their boss is using the #notsohorrible hashtag. The promotion runs November 20–30, and the submission that receives the most likes or favorites will win a free screening of the movie for their entire office. And during the movie's opening weekend, Pinkberry guests that bring in their ticket stubs can recieve a discount.
“For us, the goal is to create a lot of social dialogue around this idea of the … promotion being about not-so-horrible bosses,” Jakobsen says. “We’re always looking for ways to entertain and be a part of pop culture.”
By Tamara Omazic
