Ola Milky Lane, one of South Africa’s oldest franchise brands, is celebrating its 50th birthday this year – and management is confident that the country’s leading ice cream parlour will lay claim to a number of marketing successes in years to come. This week, Ola Milky Lane flew in celebrities and VIP’s to enjoy ice cream in the clouds – and transformed Dinner In The Sky into an Ice Cream Parlour In The Sky complete with its signature delights and trademark fast and friendly service.

Today’s vibrant, modern outlets in trendy malls are a far cry from the first store opened in Hillbrow in 1958 but Milky Lane’s history of franchising during the 80’s and then joining the fast food franchise family of JSE-listed Pleasure Foods was an important foundation. The June 2003 buyout of Milky Lane by FMCG giant Unilever, which owns the internationally successful Ola brand, elevated what became Ola Milky Lane into a power brand that is at the cutting edge of ice cream parlour retailing in South Africa.

Ola Milky Lane incorporated the tried and tested franchising system that made Milky Lane a market leader, Ola’s innovation and the entrepreneurial flair and on-the-ground management skills of Retsol which has a proven track record in managing and developing fast food brands. For Ola Milky Lane, ice cream has always been about fun – a key factor when the team began re-positioning the brand, revamping stores and introducing new menus and innovative products.

“With Ola Milky Lane, our customers are able to live the heart of the brand. We plan to continue to build Ola Milky Lane into a world of indulgent taste experiences in a branded lifestyle environment,” MacKenzie explains. Ola Milky Lane offers a range of products ranging from traditional ice cream cones to sundaes, sweet and savoury waffles and specialty coffees and Spinners, a trademarked concept that blends soft serve with chocolate, nuts, fruit, confectionery and other delicious ingredients. At this point, Ola Milky Lane is the only ice cream parlour in South Africa to be supported with television advertising. Its extensive marketing communication includes print and radio advertising, in-store sales promotions, locality marketing, co-branding, broad based public relations and social responsibility campaigns.

For its 50th birthday, Ola Milky Lane is running a sms based competition, supported with radio and below-the-line advertising, with a first prize of a holiday for a family of four in Mauritius and a trip to Cape Town as a second prize.

For more information on Ola Milky Lane, log onto www.olamilkylane.co.za