Edy's/Dreyer's Sends Top Facebook Gamers To Real, Not Virtual, Farmville

by Amy Corr, Jun 6, 2011, 4:45 PM

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Count me as one of the 15 people on earth who's never played FarmVille, the popular Facebook game that allows players to maintain a virtual farm by planting trees and crops and raising livestock. Created by Zynga, the game makes money by selling virtual items to grow one's farm, like seeds and cows.

Approximately 46 million people a month play FarmVille worldwide. Even Lady Gaga has a branded farm on FarmVille where she offered players a sneak peak at new songs on her album if they successfully completed chores in "GagaVille." 

To promote the launch of the latest flavor, Gogi White Grape, of its frozen fruit bars, Edy's/Dreyer's teamed up with Zynga to send top FarmVille players to Farmville, Va. to plant a fruit orchard. 

The virtual will become reality on June 13 when four top FarmVille players, hand-picked by Zynga, will travel to Virginia to plant an orchard.

FarmVille players will plant dozens of actual fruit trees, ranging from apples, plums, figs, pomegranates, cherries and pears. Twenty more orchards will be planted this year in other cities. Consumers can go online to vote where future orchards are planted.

Fear not, gamers: you can plant limited edition Edy's/Dreyer's Fruit Bars-branded crops on your virtual farm between June 13 and June 19 to earn additional profits and mastery recognition in the game.  

Zenzi Communications is promoting the program through various PR outreaches. There's no ad campaign coinciding with the orchard planting.

The initiative stems from a 2010 program, developed by Edy's/Dreyer's, called Communities Take Root, that plants fruit orchards in communities nationwide. Edy's/Dreyer's collaborated with the Fruit Tree Planting Foundation, a nonprofit that plants fruit trees to support healthy nutrition, to educate cities and its residents about caring for the orchards. "The goal is to provide the town of Farmville with fresh fruit for generations. The orchard is in a public park, and the hope is that the fruit trees will make the Farmville community greener and healthier," said Jia Li, the Fruit Bars' associate brand manager.

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