It’s the official start of summer. The kids are out of school and there is no shortage of fun things to do. But will parents turn off their tech devices, put their work commitments on hold and spend time with their kids to plan the most fun day possible during the best season of the year? The Dairy Queen system is reminding parents to do just that.
“The DQ brand has filled our fans’ summer memory banks for nearly 80 years but recently we noticed that many parents have lost touch with their summer selves and forever young spirit with staying plugged into work,” says Maria Hokanson, executive vice president of marketing for American Dairy Queen Corporation (ADQ).
In fact, according to a Project: Time Off study, 25 percent of American workers did not take a vacation in 2017.
“The DQ brand is a summer staple, so we felt like it was time to encourage our fans to take a day off, live their best summer lives and make a memory with their kids,” Hokanson says.
To promote the effort, the DQ brand has created the Skip Day Soft Serve Singers, a children’s choir, who will be inviting and harmoniously guilt-tripping parents to take a day off through several online videos. The choir will perform from a pool, a baseball field and a park, singing directly at parents from the places they’d like to be enjoying with them. Songs are sung to folk classics such as I’ve Been Working on the Railroad with alternate lyrics:
You’ve been working this whole summer,
You’re just never home.
You’ve been working this whole summer,
You’re always glued to your phone.
You don’t have to write that email
Forget those status reports.
Wouldn’t you feel better
At the pool in some shorts?
To make it easy on parents and to celebrate National Ice Cream Month in July, the DQ brand is launching a new national mobile app, which offers a free small Blizzard Treat deal after download and registration. Fans can enjoy any Blizzard Treat, including those on the Summer Blizzard Menu among others. Exclusions apply.
All summer long and beyond, through the app, fans will receive national weekly exclusive DQ deals on treats, food and beverages, redeemable at participating DQ restaurants in the U.S., excluding Texas, and Canada. Fans also will receive notifications and information about national promotions, including the Blizzard of the Month, and national limited time offers directly to their phones. They’ll find access to a store locator and the DQ menu through the new app.
