How viral content turned Halo Top ice cream into a $350 million sensation
It even beat out Ben & Jerry's for the top spot in ice cream
Justin Woolverton couldn’t satisfy his sweet tooth, especially when it came to ice cream.
But he knew eating ice cream all of the time wasn’t a healthy thing to do.
Looking a healthier alternative, he mixed together some Greek yogurt, fresh berries and Stevia, a natural sweetener.
It tasted so good; he spent $20 on Amazon to buy an ice cream maker.
Then he began experimenting with a variety of ingredients like egg whites, cream, and skim milk.
He finally settled on the perfect blend of ingredients for his ice cream creation he called Halo Top.
He started cold calling distributors. But that didn’t work. That marketing effort generated $12,000 in sales.
He asked his friend Doug Bouton to help him out. They raised money from family and friends to keep the business operating but still struggled with generating revenues.
In 2014 sales reach $1.4 million, not quite enough to cover their operating expenses.
In fact, the two agreed that if the business didn’t do better over the next two years, they would give it up altogether.
Something magical happened in 2016.
A writer for GQ magazine wrote an article describing how he ate Halo Top ice cream for 10 days in a row.
Then writers at BuzzFeed taste-tested the ice cream and wrote about it.
Then celebrities like Khole Kardashian were posting about Halo Top on social media.
Suddenly millions of people knew about Halo Top ice cream.
That year Hal Top sales soared to $44.3 million. The next year sales reached $350 million.
Justin & Doug succeed with three things:
A good product…
Perseverance…
The help of writers …
Which turned Halo Top into the best-selling ice cream in the U.S. beating out other well-known brands such as Ben & Jerry’s.