ICEE
A popular American frozen carbonated beverage, known for its slushy texture and sweet, fruity or soda flavors like cherry and blue raspberry, created from a mix of syrups, water, and carbonation in special machines.
My role was to support marketing strategies and execute on end-to-end design services, ranging from online, promotional, packaging and advertising media.
Challenge
ICEE Arabia needed a creative partner who could work within the constraints of limited global assets while elevating the brand for one of the most competitive food and beverage markets in the region. The existing approach wasn’t generating the level of excitement or business momentum required locally. The challenge was to respect non-negotiable US brand elements while reimagining how ICEE showed up in markets that demand boldness, spectacle, and constant novelty.
Cold Start
With current business conditions creating time-sensitive pressure, an early project focused on excess Piña Colada stock that wasn’t moving locally. The strategy was to instead create a new flavor that was reframed and relaunched using a more vibrant, hype-driven visual approach. By pairing it with the popular Strawberry ICEE and introducing it as a limited-time “Miami V-ICEE” flavor, the campaign leaned into American pop culture and nostalgia, which is popular in the region – resulting in strong uptake and validating the creative direction.
N-ICEE Touch
The overall pop-culture-driven direction resulted in retro 80s neon aesthetics, making the campaign bold and instantly recognizable. Design elements such color choice and a slightly modified ICEE mascot further helped the flavor land as a genuine new release, not a stock solution, while also remaining on brand.
Dispenser machines and point-of-sale spaces were transformed into high-impact touchpoints and featured these new static and motion graphics, as featured here.
Breaking the ICEE
Following the success of the campaign, ICEE Arabia expanded the partnership, relying on my services for the majority of marketing collateral and design work across the UAE and Saudi Arabia. A key challenge was navigating regional regulations and cultural considerations, while preserving the bold, nostalgic American brand experience ICEE is known for.
