Church of the Customer Blog
« Mentos and Diet Coke | Main | Influence 2.0 »
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)
Other blogs that reference Mentos and Diet Coke :
» Monday Links - 6/19/06 from Casual Fridays
Michael Wagner reminds us that maybe what Father Knows Best is how to own a brand. Its a great personal micro-story that tells the macro-story of branding.
A compelling ad campaign for Amnesty International. It brings a whole new meaning to &#... [Read More]
» Mentos Mad Scientists on Dave Letterman from FreshBooks Blog
Fritz and Stephen, those talented experimenters from EepyBird.com, will be appearing on Late Night with David Letterman (along with Kate Bosworth and Broken Social Scene) tonight at 11:30pm ET.
If you haven’t seen it yet, watch the magic reproduction... [Read More]
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!
This is interesting. Never actually tried to experiment or to try what they did.
great video…both are making a great show only with mentos and diet coke….well, i tried it out and it works…very funny
Artificial sweeteners (present in all diet sodas) have been accused of causing cancer, but no one has proved that is DEFINATELY does. I think it might, but thats just my oppinion..
Looks like Coke really are losing touch with their customers - but being as large as they are they don't need their customers anymore - they've hit that critical mass point where they can to some extent pretend they think they are more important than their product - which could be another reason pepsi are starting to mop up lost sales. I love Mentos' attitude though - nice one guys
Diet pills can be an effective way to achieve quick weight loss when you choose wisely and pair them with a healthy diet and daily exercise.
