Best of 2019: Netflix transformed a Baskin-Robbins store into 'Stranger Things' ice cream parlor Scoops Ahoy

On Creativity through New Year’s, we’ll be revisiting some of the brand ideas and campaigns that made 2019—and the last decade. Check back on AdAge.com on January 1 for the full lists. Best of 2019 Baskin-Robbins dove into the Upside Down to add to its 31 flavors, in what was arguably the year’s most delightful and unexpected brand tie-ups. To promote the third season of Netflix’s popular series “Stranger Things,” the brands, working with agency 22Squared and production company M ss ng P ec es, transformed one of the ice cream shop’s most trafficked locations in Burbank, Calif. Into a real-world version of the show’s Scoops Ahoy store, complete with new themed offerings like the USS Butterscotch flavor and a Demogorgon Sundae. The campaign extended to another shop in Toronto as well as an "ice cream boat" that traveled through the streets of Los Angeles. Check out an animated breakdown of the whole experience here. Original Story Tomorrow, the U.S. will not only be celebrating its independence, it will also be cheering the arrival of Season 3 of Netflix’s popular sci-fi show “Stranger Things.” The streaming platform has been teasing the new season with a number of fun tie-ups, including this one that just dropped: an ice cream shop. The company has partnered with Baskin-Robbins to transform its most highly trafficked store, located in Burbank, Caiifornia, to Scoops Ahoy, the Starcourt Mall ice cream parlor that employs "Stranger Things" lead characters Steve Harrington (Joe Keery), and Robin (Maya Hawke). In place of Baskin Robbins’ pastel pink and blue palette, the store now boasts Scoops Ahoy’s red, white and blue nautical theme—conveniently fitting given the July 4th holiday. All the details, including the workers' uniforms, signage, menus and packaging combine to bring to life the show's fictional location. And while the shop looks the part, it will also play it too. Servers will be dishing out out servings of a new “Stranger Things” Scoops Ahoy-themed flavor, USS Butterscotch, which is also being promoted in an‘80s-style spot that riffs off of Netflix’s Starcourt Mall promo from last year. “Part of making this world feel believable is making every communication feel like it’s from 1985," said Curt Mueller, SVP-creative director at 22Squared, the agency behind the campaign. Netflix is also giving another Baskin-Robbins shop in Toronto the Scoops Ahoy treatment, and earlier, it took the theme to the seas in the form of an ice cream ship that stopped at Southern California's Santa Monica Pier, which Netflix also transformed into the show's creepy "Upside-Down" underworld.

Best of 2019: Netflix transformed a Baskin-Robbins store into 'Stranger Things' ice cream parlor Scoops Ahoy

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