Marketing Logic

This week, Coca Cola is “formally embracing” the online video phenomenon of the exploding geyser created from mixing Mentos with Diet Coke. This statement is from the same company whose formal position a few months ago was:

“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.” From the Wall Street Journal June 12, 2006.

Well, now we have an official acceptance from Coke that people will now be publicly embraced for dropping Mentos into their product, rather than being shunned by the corporate giant for not consuming their product the “correct” way.

Mentos on the other hand, had been feeding the frenzy, as they spend less than $20 million on U.S. advertising annually, but have estimated the value of the online buzz to be “over $10 million.”

The Mentos homepage has been changed to feature three links: The original video on Eepybird, a video showing the science behind the reaction, the video “geyser” contest.

They have created an official online video contest, by partnering with YouTube, for people to submit their own DietCoke and Mentos video. The winner of which was announced the on October 13, 2006.

• 150 videos were submitted for the Mentos - YouTube contest.
• A search for Mentos and Coke on YouTube yields over 5,300 videos.
• The video phenomenon drove the attention of the mainstream media with the original video by Fritz Grobe and Stephen Voltz appearing on “Late Night with David Letterman” and Discovery Channel’s “Mythbusters.”

By the way, do you think Mentos minds that people are using their jingle, logo, and typical “Mentos thumbs-up” ending? I wonder why people are using the Mentos commercial elements rather than the Diet Coke jingle? Could it be that Mentos is more fun and memorable?

The announcement in MediaPost that Coke has “joined the exploding soda craze” is joined with skepticism and yawns. Coke has run a content for user-submitted videos on its site since July 2006, (this is late October 2006) but with very little attention.

Rant Alert!

Called “The Coke Show”, the entire klugy interface almost tells people to “go away” and does little to endear the site to the user. The CocaCola website is built entirely out of Flash and initially driven by JavaScript. Why is it so important to select a country? Everytime?

The Coke site is a blast from the past with it’s ignorance of usability, technical savvy and interaction. The typical corporate design of making people select their region, country and language is patently irritating. There is no other entrance to the site, and no cookies are dropped into your browser to remember your preference. You are subjected to the location menu - everytime.

Of course, the Flash takes place in a pop-up window and the background changes constantly during transitions.

While this can be an entertaining diversion, “for the kids.” It seems funny that corporate websites designed for the younger audiences rely on Flash effects and over-the-top graphics, the sites that are most popular among their target audience noticeably lack those intensive graphical designs (YouTube, MySpace, Yahoo).

Why do I keep thinking of “Yellow Submarine” and Blue Meanies when I see this interface?

By the way – because it is all in Flash, no bookmarking the page or sending a URL to your friends – you can’t.

Ok- done ranting.

Since July, when “The Coke Show” was announced, there are eight entries as of today on the Coke site. Count’em. That’s right, eight. By the way, the contest ends in a few days – does anyone hear that tree falling?

Simply by observation, the production values in the submitted videos are much more impressive than the thousands of YouTube videos. The lighting and sound are much more professional. Draw your own conclusions, but the videos on the coke site lack the raw user passion that you find on YouTube.

According to BL Ochman: “Watching big ad agencies trying to master new media is a lot like watching people who are having mid-life crises trying to look hip, cool and young by adopting the toys, tools, and language of youth….It’s rather pathetic.” Right on target. The coke videos are excruciatingly boring when compared to wildly uncontrolled nature of the user-created videos elsewhere.

Church of the Customer Blog has been tracking the phenomenon and has been making regular updates on the difference between Coke and Mentos in running with the market. Mentos jumped in early, capitalizing on the wave of copycat videos and joining with YouTube for their content.

Anyhow, the actual subject of the press release is less of a big deal than Coke “formally embracing” social media – Coke has asked the original creators of the Diet Coke and Mentos video to create a new one that will debut on October 30th, 2006.

Do you think Coke realizes that more people will view the video AFTER the debut than during the debut?