Four 2026 PRNEWS Platinum Awards Finalist Honors and What Made This Launch a National PR Success

There are some campaigns where you know from the beginning that you have the ingredients for something special. Launching Hudsonville Ice Cream’s Little Debbie Ice Cream Sandwiches was one of those times.

This week, we learned the campaign is a finalist in four categories for the 2026 PRNEWS Platinum Awards:

• Campaign of the Year: Consumer Products & Retail
• Campaign of the Year: Restaurant/F&B
• Product Launch: Consumer
• Campaign of the Year: B2C

Seeing this work recognized across four categories is exciting, but what stands out to me most is what it took to get there and the incredible work from our talented team at Identity.

As the account lead for our partnership with Hudsonville, this was a special campaign in which timing, coordination and a willingness to adapt mattered just as much as the big creative idea.

Protect the Moment, Then Make the Most of It

At its core, our campaign goal was to successfully launch Hudsonville’s two new ice cream sandwiches inspired by Little Debbie Oatmeal Creme Pies and Cosmic Brownies. We already had brand recognition, nostalgia and passionate fans working in our favor.

Our challenge was turning that existing affinity into excitement for something completely new. We also faced a practical reality familiar to anyone who has worked on a major retail product launch: The product does not necessarily wait for your communications calendar.

Freezer resets can vary by retailer and geography. Products could begin appearing on shelves before our official announcement, and we knew consumers could discover them at any time.

Rather than build a strategy dependent on everything happening perfectly, we built one designed to capitalize on the moment as it unfolded. We coordinated earned media, social content, creator partnerships, paid social and owned channels around a central launch window, while maintaining enough flexibility to respond to actual retail availability.

Build Momentum Across Channels

Our official launch took place mid-January, timed around availability at major retailers. But the campaign did not begin that morning.

Social teasers went live 48 hours before launch. Consumers had already started spotting the products in stores, creating early organic conversation. We also worked with Parade on coverage that published just ahead of our official announcement.

When launch day arrived, we expanded media outreach nationally and across priority markets where retailer volume was high. At the same time, social content leaned into what consumers already loved about Little Debbie while giving them something new to discover.

Then came another critical part of the strategy: third-party voices. Six core creators helped amplify the launch to food-forward audiences. More than 20 microinfluencers brought retailer-specific messages into markets including Atlanta, Chicago and Detroit. We also distributed samples to more than 30 snack-focused creators and reviewers.

Each piece had a different job, but they all reinforced the same story: This product is here, people are excited about it and here is where you can find it.

Attention Is Great. Demand Is Better.

One of the most powerful aspects of a campaign like this is our ability to look beyond communications metrics to understand its impact.

Little Debbie Ice Cream Sandwiches quickly became a best-selling product, while Oatmeal Creme Pies Ice Cream Sandwiches were named Best Ice Cream Sandwich in the 2026 PEOPLE Food Awards.

Overall, the B2C launch campaign generated:

• More than 220 media mentions
• An estimated media audience of 1.3 billion
• More than 25 million Instagram and TikTok impressions
• More than 1 million impressions from our six core creator partners
• An average creator engagement rate above 8%
• Nearly 9,000 net new social followers between January and May 2026

Those numbers matter. But the bigger takeaway is how they worked together.

Earned media created credibility and discovery. Social gave the launch energy. Creators provided authentic third-party validation. Retail-focused messaging helped turn that excitement into action. No single channel carried the campaign alone.

What This Launch Reinforced

Consumer product launches move fast. Even the best plans have to account for variables you cannot completely control, from retail resets and inventory timing to organic product discoveries and online conversation. We don’t respond to these challenges by planning less. Instead, we build a strategy strong enough to flex without losing the central idea.

For this campaign, that meant protecting the reveal while recognizing when organic discovery could actually add to the excitement. It meant thinking beyond the initial announcement and creating a sequence of moments that could sustain attention. And it meant connecting communications activity as closely as possible to what ultimately mattered: getting consumers to look for the product in stores.

That is the kind of consumer work our team loves.

A Track Record of Work That Gets Recognized

This is not the first time Identity’s work has been recognized by the PRNEWS Platinum Awards, and that makes this year’s four finalist honors even more meaningful.

Over the years, Identity has earned multiple Platinum Awards recognitions across a wide range of categories. We've been named a finalist for National Agency of the Year and won Best Crisis Management Campaign, while our client work has earned finalist recognition for PR Stunt of the Year, Best Rebranding/Repositioning Campaign, Best Media Event, Best Conference Marketing/PR Campaign, Best Anniversary Campaign and Campaign of the Year.

In 2023 alone, four different Identity client campaigns were named Platinum Awards finalists, recognizing work for the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Pentastar Aviation, Motown Museum and Aimbridge Hospitality. In 2025, our work with Hudsonville Ice Cream was named a Campaign of the Year finalist for our launch of SuperScoop Ice Cream Bars.

That recognition extends beyond the Platinum Awards. Identity has also been named a National Agency of the Year finalist by Ragan’s PR Daily Awards, where our work has earned wins and finalist honors across crisis management, rebranding, food and beverage and Campaign of the Year. The agency has also earned recognition from the PRNEWS Digital PR Awards, Ragan’s Crisis Communications Awards and Ragan’s PR Daily Media Relations Awards.

There is an important thread connecting those honors. The industries, clients and challenges may be very different, but the work is grounded in the same goal: finding the idea and communications strategy that can create a meaningful outcome for the client.

That is why seeing the Little Debbie Ice Cream Sandwich launch campaign join this list is especially rewarding. It represents another example of our team bringing together strategy, creativity and execution in a way that delivered measurable business results. Being named a finalist in four 2026 PRNEWS Platinum Awards categories is meaningful recognition of that work and of the many people who brought the campaign to life.

I’m proud of what our Identity team accomplished alongside Hudsonville Ice Cream, and even more proud that the campaign delivered results where they mattered.

We’ll find out the winners Oct. 6 in New York City.

Post Summary - Four 2026 PRNEWS Platinum Awards Finalist Honors and What Made This Launch a National PR Success

• Identity is a finalist in four categories in the 2026 PRNEWS Platinum Awards for its work launching Hudsonville Ice Cream’s Little Debbie Ice Cream Sandwiches.

• The campaign is recognized in the Consumer Products & Retail, Restaurant/F&B, Product Launch: Consumer and B2C categories.

• Identity AVP of Consumer Lindsay Wyskowski led the campaign alongside the agency’s consumer team.

• The campaign integrated earned media, social media, creators, paid social and owned content around a carefully timed retail launch.

• The strategy generated more than 220 media mentions, an estimated media audience of 1.3 billion and more than 25 million social impressions.

• Six core creator partners generated more than 1 million impressions with an average engagement rate above 8%.

• Little Debbie Ice Cream Sandwiches became a best-selling ice cream sandwich, while Oatmeal Creme Pies Ice Cream Sandwiches were named Best Ice Cream Sandwich in the PEOPLE Food Awards.

• The four finalist honors add to Identity’s history of recognition from the PRNEWS Platinum Awards, including a Best Crisis Management Campaign win and multiple campaign and agency finalist honors.

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