The effect of dropping Mentos mint candies into a bottle of Diet Coke is proven. You only need watch one of the many videos of soda geyers that have flooded the web of late for confirmation. If you have not seen one of these videos for yourself, check out Voltz and Grobe’s dancing fountain at Eepybird.com. The cause of this geyser effect, however, is still in doubt, as mentioned in Steve Spangler’s “Easy Science Projects” review of the topic. Is it the gelatin and gum in the candy reducing the water’s surface tension, the pits in the surface of the candy trapping carbon dioxide, or what? From a marketing point of view, however, the question is not what caused this flood of videos, but what effect it may have on the featured brands.
Plug “Mentos” and “Diet Coke” into BlogPulse.com’s Trend Search and you will see a lovely example of how fast publicity can spread through the blogsphere. In the weeks preceding the posting of the Voltz and Grobe video, mentions of the brands are pretty steady, at less than 0.1% of all posts for Mentos and about 0.5% for Diet Coke. (Remember, while these percentages may sound small, there are millions of blog posts a day.) Many of the posts do contain references to the geyser effect of combining the two brands, but between June 2nd and 5th we see a massive upswing in mentions, taking mentions of Mentos to nearly 0.6% and Diet Coke up to 0.9%. This peak is apparently coincident with the posting of the Eepybird video. While the initial surge dies away pretty quickly, a secondary peak occurs around June 14th - probably the result of mass media coverage - and mentions of both brands remain measurably higher than before the video hit the web.
Why was there such a strong response to the Eepybird.com video? Well that’s easy to answer. The video is fun, entertaining and surprising. When we analyze results from our TVLink advertising pre-test to find out what drives agreement with the statement “would talk about this ad with friends” it is exactly these aspects that help increase talkability. Apparently the same characteristics drive pass-along too.
But what about the two brands featured in the video?
Pete Healy, Vice President of Marketing for the U.S. Division of Perfetti Van Melle - makers of Mentos - is quoted in the Wall Street Journal as saying, “We are tickled pink” by the free PR, and as estimating the value of that PR at “over $10 million.”
When I sought to find out Coca Cola’s viewpoint, I was forwarded an e-mail from the company’s External Affairs department stating, “We were as surprised by it as everyone else. It’s been fascinating to see how the phenonemon has captured people’s interest around the world.” This is a somewhat more positive quote than the one in the WSJ which suggested that the “craziness with Mentos…doesn’t fit the brand personality” of Diet Coke.
But therein lies the continued dilemma for marketers. For a relatively small brand like Mentos with a reported annual advertising budget of less than $20 million, any PR would seem like good PR. It helps raise the brand’s profile and keep the brand salient, never mind the short-term volume increase from people dropping entire rolls of candy into bottles of soda. For Diet Coke, however, the situation is somewhat different. The brand is large and well-known. The annual advertising budget probably swamps that of Mentos, and all of it is dedicated to ensuring a strong, consistent image and personality over time. The association of the Diet Coke brand with the sticky mess left after the Mentos induced geyser may well be thought less than desirable.
If I were in charge of the Diet Coke brand, however, I would be less concerned. To me, this example of consumer-generated content and its dispersion across the Web is a case of a brand becoming more embedded in popular culture. Will people think any less of Diet Coke as a result of conducting experiments like this with it, rather than drinking it? I doubt it. Instead, I think they may well feel more positively disposed toward the brand - although drinkers may be a little wary of bolting down hard candy immediately after taking a swig of their soda.
So what do you think? Is this type of coverage good or bad for the brand? Let me know, please.
(35 votes, average: 4.03 out of 5)
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July 13th, 2006 at 10:19 am
Nigel, I agree that the attention paid Diet Coke is in large part a result of the brand’s position in popular culture which, to me, suggests a benign result. The association with Mentos neither enhances or damages the brand on balance–it is merely ‘commentary’ that the brand exists (and everyone knows that already). Thus, I would expect an indifferent result for DC.
July 16th, 2006 at 2:46 pm
Fab example of genuine brand-relevant GCM Nigel. I am, of course, now desperate to know what the nearest equivalent to Mentos is that I can buy in the UK so I can try to replicate the experiment! A mate of mine has a great rocket trick with a Coke bottle, a can of Lynx/Axe and a box of matches …
Your reference to our Link database is highly relevant. It’s interesting that creative interest is more strongly correlated with talkability than a news message. It’s a point that really is important for marketers to understand - you’ll need a hell of a strong message to make people talk, unless you can wrap it really tightly up in a highly engaging creative.
As for the potential impact on the brands in question. I’d say that it makes Diet Coke seem a bit more relaxed, entertaining, light-hearted even. The real mistake Coke could have made would be to try to supress this kind of comedic take on their product. The video says nothing bad about Coke, so at worst, I can’t see there being any net negative impact, especially as the explosive Mentos video will probably be dwarfed by the rest of their marketing communications.
For Menots though, it’s probably a real moment of serendipity. I’d be trying to work out what other popular carbonated drinks it has the same reaction with and trying to get more coverage …
July 18th, 2006 at 6:56 am
To add to this, Mentos have now signed up to sponsor the Eepybird videos on Revver (www.revver.com). Even teh BBC have picked this up now (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/5188482.stm).
Another interesting thing that is the Eeepybird site expressly asks people NOT to post their films on “sites like YouTube and Google”. This does open up an new angle on the copyright argument. These guys are letting you watch their stuff for free, and they’re happy to let you embed their films in your own site. But they want to avoid the mass market ‘warehouses’.
There’s also a huge amount of broadcaster-owned content being captured and posted these days. I was trying to find a clip of the cricket at the weekend - Sky (who own the broadcast rights) offer some free video but nothing more recent than the winter tour of India. No wonder I had to look for rip-off on YouTube.
The big content owners still have a lot to sort out in terms of how they engage with alternative access technologies that are already moving into the mainstream. How better for a broadcaster to stimulate interest than by making video highlghts available for download/stream? The BBC had highlights of every World Cup game available on their site, and games available to view live online as well.
July 18th, 2006 at 8:23 am
Hi Trevor,
Thanks for these comments. I am not sure which UK candy would work but maybe Lifesavers or Altoids might work?
With regard to your other post, I am sure that the content owners are wrestling with this topic as we comment. When you have invested millions in generating content it must seem crazy to give it away once it has aired…even if you know it will go public anyway. I agree with you, far better to use that content to generate ongoing engagement than try to keep it out of the public domain.
July 19th, 2006 at 3:53 am
Trevor - I have good news. Mentos are available in the UK: http://mentos.co.uk/info.html
July 19th, 2006 at 8:37 am
Remember, no Diet Coke fountains in the office please. But if you do get to try this out send us a link to the photo or video.
July 19th, 2006 at 12:06 pm
Will do..
July 24th, 2006 at 6:38 am
I can’t have had much to do at the weekend, because I managed to find time to both locate some mentos, and conduct an ‘experiment’ all of my own. Click here to see the video. Two observations on the experiment:
1. It’s much harder to lose the Diet Coke branding from the ’scientific record’ than Mentos - you need to take the mints out of the wrapper, but you don’t need to take the label off the bottle.
2. It doesn’t work if your Diet Coke is more than 2 years out of date! Still - I was never going to drink that bottle anyway.
And it is so much fun. I’m now dreaming of ways to get the fountains as prolific as Voltz and Grobe …
October 13th, 2006 at 8:20 am
this is the way to go;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2AXzEsiaOc
and naturally I’m now a Diet Coke and Mentoes loyalist.
October 27th, 2006 at 9:36 am
Dom and Coca Cola both appear to have decided to join the exploding soda craze, if somewhat later than others.
The Coca Cola company is reported to have formally embraced the phenomenon (following the example of Mentos) and has issued the “Coca Cola Challenge.” This asks consumers to submit a video of everyday household objects to the theme of “Poetry in Motion”. In addition the company has struck a deal with Grobe and Voltz to create a new video (to launch in a few days time).