As spring bursts into bloom, Nestlé is launching its new ice cream collection spearheaded by BenNaNa, a peelable ice cream, in its major markets. At the same time, marketing communication campaigns covering all dimensions have also begun.

In 2012, Nestlé took the lead and successfully launched the innovative BenNaNa ice cream, which became widely popular among consumers. It quickly topped the Sina Weibo hot topic search ranking list after launch, and stayed in the top 10 for over seven weeks. In just three months, more than 4 million posts mentioning BenNaNa have been made on Sina Weibo.

This year, the Nestlé ice cream team adds more fun to the brand. BenNaNa will have four flavors, namely banana, strawberry, grape and melon. The novelty is that BenNaNa's packaging will not reveal the flavor, treating consumers to a pleasant surprise.

To enhance consumer communication, Nestlé ice cream will increase its market input to above 50 percent. Aside from a new TV commercial that air in Beijing, Tianjin and Guangdong Province from April, it will strengthen the strategic cooperation with Tencent, one of the largest Internet service portals in China, to engage consumers in deeply interactive ways.

BenNaNa, the innovative product will also continue its synergy with successful social media activities through joint programs with Sina and Tencent Weibo and other social media to achieve multi-platform interactive communication with consumers.

"China has a dynamic and competitive ice cream market, with less emphasis on seasonal differences in ice cream consumption. This means that consumers have transformed from purely seeking product functionality to pursuing fun and enjoyment brought by the product," said Daniel Lutz, senior vice president of Nestlé's Ice Cream and Chilled Business Unit.

Global Times