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June 19, 2006
Mentos and Diet Coke
Chances are you've probably heard about and most likely seen one of hundreds of videos featuring the fun that's possible with Diet Coke and Mentos.
The recent video featuring a choregraphed, fireworks-like display of Diet Coke and Mentos was so wonderfully over the top that it caused the experiment to go mainstream last week with features all over the traditional media.
And did you see how each company reacted to this meme of free marketing?
Mentos: "We are tickled pink by it," says Pete Healy, vice president of marketing for the company's U.S. division. The company spends less than $20 million on U.S. advertising annually and estimates the value of online buzz to be "over $10 million."
Coke: "We would hope people want to drink [Diet Coke] more than try experiments with it," says Coke spokeswoman Susan McDermott. She adds that the "craziness with Mentos ... doesn't fit with the brand personality" of Diet Coke.
It's pretty easy to tell which company spends far too much on advertising.
Bonus link: Sales of Diet Coke are down.
UPDATE (7/1/06): Mentos looks like they going to capitalize on all the buzz with a user-created video contest. (Thanks, BharleyB)
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That would have been a great possibility for Coke to leverage consumer interaction and show that they know what Advertising 2.0 is all about.
Also interesting: http://futurewire.blogspot.com/2006/06/coke-mentos-lessons-in-viral-marketing.html
Great article - I love it that sales of diet Coke are down as well :-)
"craziness with Mentos ... doesn't fit with the brand personality" of Diet Coke.
--------
Sounds like the old school "command and control" branding. I guess they haven't realized that the customers actually define the brand.
How spectacular would it have been to hire the Eepybird guys to perform this stunt in front of the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas?
"craziness with Mentos ... doesn't fit with the brand personality" of Diet Coke.
--------
Sounds like the old school "command and control" branding. I guess they haven't realized that the customers actually define the brand.
How spectacular would it have been to hire the Eepybird guys to perform this stunt in front of the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas?
If you check YouTube you'll see that people have now started comparing Pepsi and Coke as Mento-splosion-media. Pepsi could take over!
I am more of a coke than a pepsi person, although when it comes to investing I prefer pepsi.
Very interesting differences in response. I'm at the WOMMA conference right now, and a question about this very difference came up for a Coke spokesperson on a panel. His response parroted the Coke spokesperson response in Jackie's post almost verbatim.
Very cool video, kinda reminds me of something the Blue Man Group would do. I found a site that was trying to cash in. Have a look at CokeMentos.com. They've put together a top list of Diet Coke and Mentos Videos.
-Steph
Mentos gets it even if Coke doesn't. Check it out:
http://www.mentosgeysers.com
Time that Coke got back in touch with their customers, methinks. However if you want to incite your consumers to extremes in the name of viral advertising this is one way to do it. Also the way most likely to backfire, but is there anyone here who DOESN'T immediately want to run off and BUY a coke and mentos and throw 'em together, just to prove Susan McDermott wrong??? I felt the same way about the court case between Volkswagon and those two guys over the "joke" Polo car ad; I wanted to immediately edit up something equally naughty to show solidarity.
Must. Resist. Urge. To. Create. Subversive. Campaigns.
Nice job on "exploding" brand myths. (heh. exploding. Geddit?).
Hey everyone you have to watch this coke and mentos video...the backfiring rocket. Its the funniest one ive seen.
http://www.xonger.com/viral_of_day2.php
Here in Ontario the diet pop known as 7-up is made with Aspartame/Ace-K. In fact 99.9% of all diet pops here, including Diet Coke which is a diet pop, are Aspartame/Ace-K.
The only brand of diet cola, that I've been able to find that is made with sucralose is the Costco brand. And I'm not sure if that has caffeine. I haven't tried it yet, since I don't usually buy diet pop by the case.
i liked a lot reading your interesting post, thank you very much for writing it!
Interesting post! I don't believe that they can did it all in one time!
