Music at the Magnum Pleasure Store Powered by SoundMachine

Unilever is taking its signature chocolate and ice cream brand, Magnum, to the next level at the Magnum Pleasure Store. This is part of the company’s global strategy in key cities like New York, London, and Singapore. This experience allows Pleasure Seekers to make their own unique Magnum creations with their choice of toppings and Belgian chocolate.

A Magnum Pleasure Store pop-up is open in the very heart of London from June 27th to September 16th.  The Pleasure Store embodies and celebrates Magnum’s attitude to Take Pleasure Seriously. It showcases its position as an expert in luxury ice cream craftsmanship. Londoners can customize their own eye-catching ice creams, crafted in-store by Magnum’s expert Pleasure Makers. They create the ice creams from all sorts of combinations including rose petals or black lava sea salt.

Music is an important part of Magnum’s strategy in enticing its customers.  SoundMachine and Sonos collaborated to give a high-end solution in both content and hardware.  Perfect Octave supported this operation, the exclusive partner of SoundMachine in the UK.

Magnum’s needs

The Pleasure Store is centered on a tailored product experience in which the in-store music plays a key role. At the very basic level, Magnum needed music that reflected its brand: premium, luxury and playful ice cream that isn’t overly sweet.

Another consideration for the Pleasure Store was that they needed music for two distinct spaces: one upstairs and the other one downstairs. The upstairs space is a higher-volume, modern interpretation of the traditional ice cream experience. There customers design their custom Magnum and take it out to the streets to continue with their day. The downstairs space, however, is a lounge for masterclasses, where the music must accompany this purpose. The difficulty is to tie both concepts under one brand, creating different dynamics in a same premium and sophisticated environment.

“The music is a key element of the Magnum Pleasure Store experience“, says Alix Colin, Magnum UK Brand Manager. “It needs to reflect the indulgence and sophistication of the product and the brand as our consumers step into the store where they are invited to Take Pleasure Seriously, whether it is by customizing their own ice creams or indulging in one of our in-store events.”

Our solution for them

After considering Magnum’s needs, we decided on a plan that brought cohesion to the space as a whole. Pop music anchored the playful but sophisticated atmosphere. The upstairs playlist was modern, upbeat pop creating a refined yet lively environment. Once more, this matched the playful attitude of Pleasure Makers behind the bar. The downstairs playlist felt more relaxed and intimate as Magnum was inviting Pleasure Seekers to a special VIP experience, the Chef’s Table. We achieved this by adding to it some touches of Pop R&B and underground electronic artists who play with pop elements or are on the cusp of pop stardom, with artists like Flume, Cut Copy or Mount Kimble. These types of sounds invite people to stay in, pay attention to their activities, and just enjoy themselves.

Whilst upbeat pop sounds were the center of the playlist, the brand wanted to stay away from top charts tunes to keep a sense of sophistication and luxury.

The store is open seven days a week, so it has been also important that the playlist is extensive. “More is definitely an important thing when it comes to in-store music” says Elliot Nortey, store manager at Magnum Pleasure Store in London. “This way you are keeping the customers happy, but you are also keeping the staff happy and motivated”. The playlist contains more than 1000 songs in each one of the spaces. This translates to more than two days of music without repetition –if it kept playing the 24 hours of the day.