A sweet ride: Hyundai cruises into convenience stores with GS25 ice cream collaboration

The ice cream sandwich is one of many cross-industry collaborations, which allow automakers and semiconductor firms to broaden their consumer reach through everyday products. 

News Team
Published
Woman holding a GS25 card beside a black Hyundai Grandeur with GS25 and Hyundai branding overhead.
A model holds a packaged ice cream sandwich released in collaboration between the convenience store chain GS25 and Hyundai Motor.

GS25 will roll out a Hyundai-themed ice cream sandwich on Wednesday as cross-industry collaborations continue to be popular among Korean convenience store chains.

The upcoming cream cheese-flavored ice cream sandwich was inspired by a prank that Hyundai Motor pulled on April Fools’ Day in 2022, when it jokingly announced that it would open a bakery.

Each ice cream package includes one randomly selected sticker from a collection of 20. Each sticker features a Hyundai model, such as the Grandeur, Santa Fe, Nexo and Ioniq 9.

Related Article

The two companies will hold promotional events throughout July to celebrate the launch.

GS25 will offer raffle prizes, such as a 7.5-gram (0.24-troy-ounce) 24K gold key, to customers who purchase the ice cream.

Additionally, the first three customers to collect all 20 stickers will win a paid vacation to Jeju Island, courtesy of Hyundai Motors, once their collection is verified.

Hyundai and GS25 ice cream bar package beside a sheet of Hyundai car stickers.
An ice cream sandwich developed by GS25 and Hyundai Motor, left, and collectible stickers featuring Hyundai vehicles, one of which is randomly included in each ice cream package

Cross-industrial collaborations were popular last year as well.

Last November, 7-Eleven teamed up with chipmaker SK hynix to release HBM Chips, which sold more than 400,000 units through this April.

The snack playfully reimagines the “HBM,” which normally stands for high bandwidth memory, as “honey banana mat [flavor]” in Korean. The chips were even shaped like miniature semiconductors.

After Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang handed them out to people during his visit to Korea on June 5, the snack’s sales jumped eightfold, rising a whopping 704 percent on June 6 and 7 compared to the previous week, according to 7-Eleven on June 8.

HBM Chips, a chocolate and corn snack collaboration between SK hynix and 7-Eleven


Such unlikely pairings are proving mutually beneficial. Automakers and semiconductor firms can broaden their consumer reach by turning their brands into everyday products that are more approachable to the general public.

The popularity of convenience stores among foreign tourists visiting Korea provides an added boost to brand recognition.

Convenience store chains, meanwhile, benefit by drawing in fans of those brands and generating buzz around limited-edition products.

“We’ve been flooded with requests for collaborations that cross traditional industry boundaries,” said Lee Ha-rim, a merchandise director at GS Retail’s dessert department.


BY LIM SUN-YOUNG [[email protected]]

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.

industry convenience stores business brand collaboration gs25 ice cream sandwich hyundai motor

Read more

See more articles