Bomb Pop is the most popular ice pop that nobody can remember. People know the red, white and blue colors and iconic rocket shape, but have trouble recalling the name. Our mission was simple: get tweens to remember our name. But with a generation prone to ad blindness, it wouldn’t be enough to make ads. We wanted an immersive approach to being memorable. So, we met them on an immersive platform where they already are — gaming in Roblox. We partnered with game developer Moonrock to integrate Bomb Pop into a game tweens already love: Restaurant Tycoon 2.
Our team worked with Moonrock to create an experience that was authentic to what tweens are looking for in Roblox: a fun experience that added something new to the game they love. For two weeks, our update let Restaurant Tycoon 2 restaurant owners serve up a new item — 8 types of virtual Bomb Pops — to their hungry customers to earn limited-edition gear to upgrade their restaurants, turning Restaurant Tycoon 2 into a red, white, and blue bonanza.
We seeded the integration on platforms our tweens frequent, YouTube and TikTok, with gaming influencers and trailers, previewing the update and building excitement ahead of the official launch. As players sold more and more Bomb Pops, they unlocked the 50+ exclusive branded items we created, from couches and chandeliers to lava lamps and beach cruiser bicycles. Players completely transformed their restaurants into gaming lounges, family-style buffets, and even high-end beach clubs using our limited-edition items.
The two-week activation saw over 1.7 million total plays, and users sold over 48.6 million Bomb Pops — more than double their top-selling in-game cheeseburger — making it the most-sold food item ever on Roblox. With an average of 29 minutes, time spent was 133% beyond Roblox branded-experience benchmarks.
The update garnered nearly 600,000 hours of total playtime and gave players a new way to interact with Bomb Pop. But gamers didn’t just serve Bomb Pops…they started a restaurant revolution, using limited-edition items to completely transform their restaurants into anything from a gaming lounge to a beach club to a family-style buffet — all with the Bomb Pop brand front and center.
Even more significantly, sales in the real world were up with an immediate 28.6% increase. By giving gamers exactly what they wanted in a game they loved, we proved that the virtual world can drive epic real-world business results.
