IDFA conducted a strategic social media campaign in May and June to build excitement and increase awareness of the Annual Capitol Hill Ice Cream Party with members of Congress and their staffs. IDFA engaged thousands of Twitter and Facebook users and shared messages, some of which were picked up by outlets that are popular with legislative professionals and congressional staff. The efforts resulted in nearly 76,000 total views.

The Capitol Hill Ice Cream Party is one of the biggest opportunities for IDFA to host members of Congress and their staffs, publicly demonstrate influence on Capitol Hill and brand the power of its robust ice cream membership.

Promotions highlighting IDFA as the host of the event reached 13,650 Capitol Hill-area Facebook users, a group that collectively viewed the content 19,300 times. Key audiences were reached multiple times with IDFA content, and the posts garnered 500 clicks from this audience. Nearly 5,000 other Facebook users associated with IDFA also viewed these posts.

IDFA’s promoted tweets were viewed 40,755 times. More than half of these views came from the Capitol Hill area.

The U.S. Capitol Historical Society shared social posts about the event, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture engaged with IDFA. Tweets also led to mentions by the Washington, D.C. publication CQ Roll Call on its “Big Events” webpage, emails and Twitter page.

Posts during the ice cream party garnered an additional 10,930 views. View tweets and Facebook posts under #CHillParty.

IDFA’s annual event on Capitol Hill serves as a soft launch to National Ice Cream Month in July. IDFA will expand on the success of this year’s social campaign on July 1 by kicking off a comprehensive and colorful National Ice Cream Month campaign. For more information, read “Celebrate National Ice Cream Month with IDFA.”

IDFA will again join with the USDA to host an ice cream party for National Ice Cream Day. It will be held July 19 at the USDA’s office on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

Members with questions may contact Audra Kruse, manager of communications, at akruse@idfa.org, or Colin Newman, manager of legislative affairs and political programs, at cnewman@idfa.org.