• DE&I Commitment
  • Careers
  • Locations
  • Book a Meeting
    Book a Meeting
  • Company
    Learn a little more about us, our values, and our team
    Our Values
    We don't just talk the talk; we live by our core values
    About Us
    Empowering brands to realize their potential with data, insights, and technology
    Leadership
    Meet our leadership team
    Secure Data Architecture
    Our promise of data security and privacy. We keep your data safe from publishers, competitors and bad actors
    Corporate Social Responsibility
    We are committed to making a positive impact on our communities and our planet
  • Platform
    Plan, manage, optimize, and measure your campaigns with our omnichannel platform
    Our Platform
    A platform that connects all walled garden media
    Connected Media
    Create and manage campaigns across search, social, retail media and apps, in one platform
    Connected Data
    Make data-driven decisions as you plan and strategize
    See the industries we serve
    Learn how our customizable solutions can help with your unique needs
    Explore our partner integrations
    See the media, retailer, and data partners we work with
  • Clients
  • News and Events
    Check out recent announcements and see what we’re up to
    News
    Check out our recent media coverage
    Events
    Join us for our next conference or webinar
    Quarterly Trends Webinar
    Get the latest insights on digital marketing campaign performance for Q4 2022
    Retail Media for Grocery Webinar
    Join us to dig into trends and challenges shaping the industry in 2023
  • Resources
    From new releases, to industry trends and best practices, Skai has you covered
    Blog
    Read the latest insights and thought leadership from our industry experts
    Capabilities
    Take your campaigns to the next level by enhancing your platform capabilities
    Research
    Explore our reports and whitepapers so you can keep up on the latest industry trends
    Subscribe
    Sign up to get the latest updates straight to your inbox
    Quarterly Trends Report
    Learn digital advertising campaign performance trends from Q3 2022
Back to Blog

What’s Hot? What’s Not? What’s Next? Insights for Ice Cream Brands by Skai

Skai™

August  16, 2021
insights for ice cream brands

With record-setting temperatures across the northern hemisphere this year, we thought it would be timely to dive into one of the tastiest ways to beat the summer heat, ice cream, in this week’s What’s Hot, What’s Not, What’s Next.

You may have heard the recent buzz around Kraft’s ice cream collaboration with Brooklyn-based Van Leeuwen Ice Cream on July 14, otherwise known as National Mac and Cheese Day. While it may sound a bit weird for an ice cream flavor, the odd combo sparked a viral sensation with social media influencers tripping over each other to post reaction videos and selfies with this limited-edition treat.

But did it sell? Well, the 2000 initial pints sold out in nine minutes!  

insights for ice cream brandsWith the viral success of the macaroni and cheese ice cream, some others followed suit, including:

  • Marble Slab’s Flaming Hot Cheetos flavor ice cream & shake is available through September 30, 2021. “Our Cheetos Flamin’ Hot Ice Cream encourages you not to take life too seriously. It’s unexpected, a bit surprising, and a whole lot of delicious. What’s not to love?” said CMO Annica Conrad.
  • It may look like a bucket of chicken, but it’s actually a bucket of chicken drumstick-shaped ice cream bars by Life Raft Treats. The “Not Fried Chicken” Ice Cream is the brainchild of the six-time finalist for the James Beard Awards’ Outstanding Pastry Chef, Chef Cynthia Wong. 
  • The Dogfish Head brewery produced an alcoholic Hazy-O IPA ice cream with up to 5% alcohol by volume and can only be consumed by those 21+. It’s being sold through Goldbelly, which notes that an adult signature is required upon delivery; packages will not be left at the door. 

Insights for Ice Cream Brands: What’s Hot, Not, & Next

With so many weird and wonderful ice cream variations coming to market, how do brands keep up with their competitors? How do they stay on top of the latest consumer trends? And how do they make sure that their next flavor/product launch also sells out in 9 minutes?

Consumer and market intelligence platforms like Skai are increasingly used by ice cream brands looking to keep a finger on the pulse of what is happening in the category, in real-time and get ahead of the latest trends.

Skai collects more data than anyone else relevant to ice cream (social reviews, product listings, ratings, reviews, patents, etc.) so that brands don’t miss a thing. We apply natural language processing so that it’s easy to extract what is happening in the ice cream category and why — and what will happen in the future. And we visualize the data in a way that makes it easy to understand for anyone from Insights, Marketing, Brand, Product Innovation, and more.

Our Ice Cream & Frozen Novelties category includes data from over:

  • 3,133 products
  • 2.5 million consumer discussions
  • 60,000+ consumer reviews 
  • 17,000+ key opinion leader posts
  • 2,100+ patents

So what is the data showing us? Let’s take a look!

What’s Hot?

  • Plant-based protein, a growing trend in other food categories, has made its way to ice cream with 117% growth in social discussions year on year.
  • Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough is currently the top reviewed ice cream product on Target.com with a 5-star rating by 418 reviewers.
  • Thick seems to be something ice cream makers are interested in exploring. There have been 230 new patents filed in the last 5 years for ice cream expressing a thick texture.
  • Peanuts have been a long-standing favorite ingredient for dessert lovers and seem to be getting even more popular, with a 44% growth in consumer reviews over the last year.
  • Konjac, a southeast Asian plant often used in traditional Chinese medicine to treat a variety of ailments, has recently seen a 240% growth in social media posts related to ice cream.
  • Bold is a taste that is being cited more often with a 320% year-over-year growth in mentions in consumer product reviews.

What’s Not?

  • Fat-Free ice cream might be something only your Aunt Susan is looking for. No new Fat-Free products or patents have been detected in the last year.
  • Fluffy ice cream sounds good, but is it selling? There has been a 48% drop in consumer product reviews for the term fluffy related to ice cream.
  • Bland and Artificial are the two leading topics Amazon consumers expressed as negative taste in ice cream in their product reviews.
  • Calcium has taken a bit of a hit recently, but it might be coming back. There has been an 86% drop in consumer reviews mentioning calcium, but 30 new ice cream patents have been filed in the last five years citing this nutrient.
  • Tea-flavored ice cream was pretty hot a few years ago. But, in the last year, there has been a 31% drop in social media posts mentioning tea as an ice cream flavor.
  • Salty, when combined with sweet things, has been a big hit with ice cream over the last decade, i.e., salted caramel, pretzel/salted nuts as a topping, etc. But it seems to be declining as a trend. For example, just 14 new ice cream patents have been detected over the past five years mentioning salty.

What’s Next?

  • Fiber is definitely going to be a new nutrient in ice cream. There have been a whopping 281 new patents filed for ice cream products containing fiber in the last five years.
  • Smuckers is currently the most mentioned brand in Walmart.com product reviews related to the ice cream and frozen novelties category and should remain at the top for some time. Smuckers makes one of the leading ice cream toppings, including caramel, butterscotch, and chocolate sundae syrups.
  • Soft has seen a 278% growth in consumer reviews of ice cream products.
  • Amino acids aren’t something people usually think about with ice cream. But, there has been a significant increase in ice cream patents mentioning amino acids over the past five years. 
  • Buckwheat has recently popped up in various food categories and can play a valuable role in controlling blood sugar levels. There has been an 800% growth in social media posts for buckwheat. This is a rather untraditional ice cream flavor and might be something for ice cream companies to keep their eyes on.
  • Sour is a very common taste with candies, but it hasn’t been that big in ice cream…yet. There have been 40 new sour ice cream product patents filed in the last five years. But, currently, only 10 ice cream products mention the term Sour in their product descriptions.
  • Chicken? It might be hard to believe, but chicken is emerging as an interesting new ingredient in the ice cream category. There has been a 4492% growth in consumer reviews mentioning it in the last year. Of course, part of this trend could be due to the aforementioned chicken-bucket-inspired ice cream bars.

Top Ice Cream Brands (by social posts)

insights for ice cream brands
The Ice Cream trend to watch: what’s up with chocolate?

Chocolate is one of the most popular flavors of ice cream and makes up 224 of the 3000+ ice cream products we track on ecommerce websites. But, something caught our eye: there have been no new chocolate ice cream products released in the last year. 

Additionally, of the 2100+ new ice cream patents that have been filed over the last five years, there were only 15 new patents detected that highlight chocolate as a flavor. In the last year, social media posts mentioning chocolate ice cream are down 11%, and reviews of chocolate ice cream products are down 23% 

Of course, chocolate ice cream isn’t going anywhere. But, it would seem the innovation is slowing in this area. So, there may be opportunities for ice cream manufacturers to find new, creative ways to bring this flavor to market and take advantage of the current popularity.

To find out what’s hot, what’s not, and what’s next in your industry, please reach out today to schedule a brief demo of Skai’s market intelligence platform.

Request a Demo of Skai

Related Posts

  • What’s hot, what’s not, what’s next for insights for insights on women’s fashion trends.
    Women’s Fashion Insights: What's Hot, What's Not, and What's Next for Fashion Brands?
    Read More
  • What’s hot, what’s not, what’s next for skincare brands by Skai™
    Skincare Insights: What's Hot, What's Not, and What's Next for Skincare Brands?
    Read More
  • What’s Hot? What’s Not? What’s Next? Insights for Snack Brands by Skai
    Read More
  • What’s Hot? What’s Not? What’s Next? Insights for Baking Brands by Skai
    Read More
  • woman drinking coffee
    Coffee Industry Trends: What's Hot, What's Not, and What's Next for Coffee Brands?
    Read More
  • What’s Hot? What’s Not? What’s Next? Insights for Wearables Brands by Skai
    Read More
  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on LinkedIn
  • Share via Email
  • Copy Link
    Copied!
Tags: hot not next, Market Intelligence, xTLx

Subscribe to Updates

Media that matters.
Marketing that works.
© 2023 Kenshoo, Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
Privacy Policy. Cookie Policy. Recruitment Privacy Policy.
  • Connected Data
    • Market Intelligence
    • Our Approach
    • By Need
    • By Solution
  • Connected Strategy
    • Dynamic Marketing Mix
    • Budget Forecasting
    • Strategic Consulting
  • Connected Media
    • Overview
    • Retail Media
    • Paid Search
    • Paid Social
    • App Marketing
    • Auditing
    • Expert Services
  • Measurement
    • Incrementality
    • Experiments
    • Cross-Channel Attribution
  • Resources
    • Blog
    • Glossary
    • Case Studies
    • Training & Enablement
    • Developer Hub
Privacy Preference

We use cookies on our website. Some of them are essential, while others help us to improve this website and your experience.

Privacy Preference

Save All

Save

Accept Only Essential Cookies

Manage Cookie Preferences

Cookie Details Privacy Policy Imprint

Privacy Preference

Here you will find an overview of all cookies used. You can give your consent to whole categories or display further information and select certain cookies.

Save All Save Accept Only Essential Cookies

Back

Privacy Preference

Essential cookies enable basic functions and are necessary for the proper function of the website.

Show Cookie Information Hide Cookie Information

Name
Provider Owner of this website, Imprint
Purpose Saves the visitors preferences selected in the Cookie Box of Borlabs Cookie.
Host(s) .skai.io, skai.io
Cookie Name borlabs-cookie
Cookie Expiry 1 Year
Name
Provider Owner of this website
Purpose This cookie stores selections made by the user in the Accessibe tool in order to maintain those settings on future visits. These cookies help us make our website compliant with our obligations under US law.
Privacy Policy https://accessibe.com/privacy-policy
Cookie Name acsbState, acsbReset
Cookie Expiry n/a
Name
Provider Owner of this website
Host(s) skai.io
Cookie Name wordpress_sec_,wordpress_test_cookie,wp-postpass_*, wordpresspass_*, wordpressuser_*
Cookie Expiry Session / 1 Year

We use these cookies to enhance functionality and allow for personalisation, such as live chats, videos and the use of social media.

Show Cookie Information Hide Cookie Information

Accept
Name
Provider Owner of this website
Host(s) .chilipiper.com, skai.chilipiper.com
Cookie Name fs_uid, CHILI_PIPER_CLUSTER, guest-session, _sp_ses*, _sp_id*
Cookie Expiry Session / 2 Years
Accept
Name
Provider Owner of this website
Host(s) .comeet.co, www.comeet.co
Cookie Name visid_incap_, nlbi_#######, incap_ses_, referrer22_00a, incap_ses_1364_2167377
Cookie Expiry Session / 1 Year
Accept
Name
Provider Owner of this website
Host(s) skai.io
Cookie Name moduleFormPardotDownload
Cookie Expiry 30 days

Statistics cookies collect information anonymously. This information helps us to understand how our visitors use our website.

Show Cookie Information Hide Cookie Information

Accept
Name
Provider Google Ireland Limited, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland
Purpose Cookie by Google used for website analytics. Generates statistical data on how the visitor uses the website.
Privacy Policy https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en
Cookie Name _ga,_ga_*,_gat,_gat_*,_gid
Cookie Expiry 2 Months
Accept
Name
Provider Hotjar Ltd., Dragonara Business Centre, 5th Floor, Dragonara Road, Paceville St Julian's STJ 3141 Malta
Purpose Hotjar is an user behavior analytic tool by Hotjar Ltd.. We use Hotjar to understand how users interact with our website.
Privacy Policy https://www.hotjar.com/legal/policies/privacy/
Host(s) *.hotjar.com
Cookie Name _hjClosedSurveyInvites, _hjDonePolls, _hjMinimizedPolls, _hjDoneTestersWidgets, _hjIncludedInSample, _hjShownFeedbackMessage, _hjid, _hjRecordingLastActivity, hjTLDTest, _hjUserAttributesHash, _hjCachedUserAttributes, _hjLocalStorageTest, _hjptid, _hjSessionUser_2229986, _hjIncludedInPageviewSample, _hjIncludedInSessionSample, _hjAbsoluteSessionInProgress, _hjFirstSeen
Cookie Expiry Session / 1 Year

Marketing cookies are used by third-party advertisers or publishers to display personalized ads. They do this by tracking visitors across websites.

Show Cookie Information Hide Cookie Information

Accept
Name
Provider Linkedin
Cookie Name lidc, li_gc, lang, AnalyticsSyncHistory, UserMatchHistory, li_sugr, bcookie, TDCPM, TDID, bscookie, ln_or
Cookie Expiry Session / 1 Year
Accept
Name
Provider Skai
Accept
Name
Provider 6sense
Cookie Name _gd_session, _an_uid, _gd_visitor, _gd_svisitor, 6suuid
Cookie Expiry Session / 400 Days
Accept
Name
Provider Pardot
Purpose Cookie name associated with services from marketing automation and lead generation platform Pardot. The visitor value is the visitor_id in your Pardot account. This cookie is set for visitors by the Pardot tracking code.
Host(s) .pardot.com, pi.pardot.com, skai.io
Cookie Name pardot, visitor_id*, lpv*
Cookie Expiry Session / 10 Years
Accept
Name
Provider Google Ireland Limited, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland
Purpose Cookie by Google used for conversion tracking of Google Ads.
Privacy Policy https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en
Cookie Name IDE, 1P_JAR, NID, SOCS, CONSENT, AEC, _gcl_au, OTZ, test_cookie
Cookie Expiry Session / 400 Days
Accept
Name
Provider Meta Platforms Ireland Limited, 4 Grand Canal Square, Dublin 2, Ireland
Purpose Cookie by Facebook used for website analytics, ad targeting, and ad measurement.
Privacy Policy https://www.facebook.com/policies/cookies
Cookie Name _fbp,act,c_user,datr,fr,tr,m_pixel_ration,pl,presence,sb,spin,wd,xs
Cookie Expiry Session / 1 Year

Content from video platforms and social media platforms is blocked by default. If External Media cookies are accepted, access to those contents no longer requires manual consent.

Show Cookie Information Hide Cookie Information

Accept
Name
Provider Wistia
Host(s) .wistia.com
Cookie Name cb_anonymous_id, _sp_ses.2b40, _li_dcdm_c, __hssrc, _gcl_au, _clsk, hubspotutk, _sp_id.2b40, __hssc, __hstc, _uetsid, _uetvid, _gid, _ga, _ga_GQR109DZ3Y, _lc2, fpi, _ex-pricing-cta, _fbp, cb_group_id, cb_user_id, _clck
Cookie Expiry Session / 400 Days
Accept
Name
Provider Meta Platforms Ireland Limited, 4 Grand Canal Square, Dublin 2, Ireland
Purpose Used to unblock Instagram content.
Privacy Policy https://www.instagram.com/legal/privacy/
Host(s) .instagram.com
Cookie Name pigeon_state
Cookie Expiry Session
Accept
Name
Provider Openstreetmap Foundation, St John’s Innovation Centre, Cowley Road, Cambridge CB4 0WS, United Kingdom
Purpose Used to unblock OpenStreetMap content.
Privacy Policy https://wiki.osmfoundation.org/wiki/Privacy_Policy
Host(s) .openstreetmap.org
Cookie Name _osm_location, _osm_session, _osm_totp_token, _osm_welcome, _pk_id., _pk_ref., _pk_ses., qos_token
Cookie Expiry 1-10 Years
Accept
Name
Provider Twitter International Company, One Cumberland Place, Fenian Street, Dublin 2, D02 AX07, Ireland
Purpose Used to unblock Twitter content.
Privacy Policy https://twitter.com/privacy
Host(s) .twimg.com, .twitter.com
Cookie Name __widgetsettings, local_storage_support_test
Cookie Expiry Unlimited
Accept
Name
Provider Vimeo Inc., 555 West 18th Street, New York, New York 10011, USA
Purpose Used to unblock Vimeo content.
Privacy Policy https://vimeo.com/privacy
Host(s) player.vimeo.com
Cookie Name vuid
Cookie Expiry 2 Years
Accept
Name
Provider Google Ireland Limited, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland
Purpose Used to unblock YouTube content.
Privacy Policy https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en&gl=en
Host(s) google.com
Cookie Name CONSENT
Cookie Expiry 6 Month

Borlabs Cookie powered by Borlabs Cookie

Privacy Policy Imprint