Mountain Dew Presents Interactive NBA All-Star Experience

via the Source

PURCHASE, N.Y., February 11, 2016 – Today, Mountain Dew® announced its plans as an official NBA partner to deliver a damn good time throughout NBA All-Star 2016, including “Court Vision: An Interactive Virtual Reality Art Experience” and “Make An Introduction,” a television spot airing in the U.S. and Canada featuring DEW^® athletes and 2016 NBA All-Stars Russell Westbrook and Jimmy Butler, and rising star Julius Randle.

In 2015, PepsiCo and the NBA announced a multi-year marketing partnership to unite the passionate fans of the NBA with the power of PepsiCo’s food and beverage brands, including Mountain Dew, Aquafina, Brisk and Ruffles. Mountain Dew serves as the lead brand in North America for the partnership, joining longtime PepsiCo brand Gatorade, which has been an NBA partner since 1984.

“The Mountain Dew brand is all about finding and delivering awesome, one-of-a-kind experiences to DEW Nation,” said Greg Lyons, senior vice president of marketing, Mountain Dew. “The NBA partnership has been a natural fit for us, and we’re pumped to help deliver an immersive All-Star experience to hoops fans – one that symbolizes how the game starts on the court, but lives everywhere.”

Mountain Dew plans to unleash a number of interactive and energizing events in and outside of Toronto during NBA All-Star 2016, including:

Court Vision: An Interactive Virtual Reality Art Experience

Hosted by Mountain Dew at Artscape Sandbox in downtown Toronto, convenient to both the Air Canada Centre and Ricoh Coliseum, this highly interactive fan event will feature Tilt Brush, Google’s virtual reality application which lets you paint in three-dimensional space with endless possibilities. In collaboration with PepsiCo Creator, the company’s marketing innovation team that co-creates never-before-seen, culturally-relevant programs for consumers, the event will showcase emerging artists from Toronto and the U.S. who will create basketball-inspired 3D artwork with Tilt Brush.

Fans on-site will also be able to demo Tilt Brush and create artwork while sampling DEW products and enjoying the sounds of live DJs, as well as experience live appearances from Mountain Dew athletes and NBA All-Stars throughout the weekend. Visitwww.mountaindew.com/nba for event details. Fans beyond Toronto can follow the excitement via the Mountain Dew social channels to get all-access coverage throughout the weekend using #DEWxNBA.

“Make An Introduction” TV Commercial Launch

Mountain Dew is excited to debut a new TV commercial titled “Make An Introduction” featuring NBA All-Stars Russell Westbrook and Jimmy Butler, as well as rising star Julius Randle. The commercial will demonstrate how the game starts on the court, but the lifestyle around the game lives everywhere. It will air for the first time in the U.S. and Canada during NBA All-Star, extending the reach of the Mountain Dew All-Star experience outside of Toronto. Fans can view the digital version here to check out the very first DEWxNBA TV commercial.

Painting Union Station Green

Mountain Dew is going to make an NBA All-Star Weekend splash throughout several high traffic areas around Union Station in Toronto with a major out-of-home advertising installation. From wall murals and door decals to floor and column wraps, the artwork showcases how DEW athletes charge the game both on and off the court, and celebrates the vibrant personalities and unique styles of the NBA’s biggest stars.

DEW All-Star DJs

Mountain Dew is charging the DJs throughout NBA All-Star by bringing top NBA DJs to various NBA events around Toronto. Fans everywhere can visit www.nba.com/dewwarmup starting Thursday, Feb.11 at 12 p.m. ET to vote to choose their favorite East Conference and West Conference team warm-up songs to be played live while NBA players get warmed-up for the 2016 NBA All-Star Game.

NBA All-Star Celebrity Game Presented by Mountain Dew

Mountain Dew is the presenting sponsor of this year’s NBA All-Star Celebrity Game on Friday, Feb. 12, at 7 p.m. ET, on ESPN in the U.S. and TSN and SportsNet 1 in Canada, which will feature some of the hottest celebrities from film, TV and music, along with top NBA & WNBA Legends taking their skills to Ricoh Coliseum for a fun and entertaining basketball game. The game will pit Canada vs. the U.S., with DEW athlete and 2016 NBA All-Star Isaiah Thomas as an assistant coach on the U.S. team.

Pepsi Is Opening a Restaurant in New York City

via HYPEBEAST

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That’s right — soft drink giant PepsiCo is going into the restaurant business. This restaurant-bar-event space dubbed the Kola House, is following the footsteps of other consumer brands opening up retail spaces in New York City — think Chobani in the SoHo neighborhood. Its PepsiCo’s newest endeavor to stay competitive while giving fans the chance to get the full brand experience.

In the Kola House, Pepsi branding will be kept to a minimum, wanting the star ingredient — the kola nut — to do the speaking instead. There’s no projected opening date and final details, including menu and cocktails, have yet to be determined. But keep an eye out for Kola House’s opening in Chelsea.

PepsiCo Creator Division Develops Immersive Creative Experiences

via Food Dive

Dive Brief:

• For the past 18 months, Creator has been PepsiCo North America Beverages' in-house division tasked with devising innovative ways to use immersive experiences to foster engagement with consumers.
• Creator debuted the Pepsi Art Dome, developed for PepsiCo by digital animated art site Likuid Art, at the Voodoo Music and Arts Experience in New Orleans on Halloween weekend. The 40-foot dome was an interactive art experience that was "raining lights and color on an audience sprawled out on couches," and "The 18 minutes of extrasensory chill-out culminates in swirling blue and red color whisps that coalesce into the Pepsi logo," according to Fast Company.
• The staff at Creator search for emerging trends in a variety of spaces, from sports and entertainment to technology and lifestyle, and then cultivate those concepts via artistic collaborations between PepsiCo brands, artists, and corporate partners.

Dive Insight:

"Creator is about transformation in marketing, how we embrace risk, deploy disruptive technology, and connect with consumers in new and different ways," Seth Kaufman, CMO for PepsiCo North America Beverages, told Fast Company. "Consumers are on multiple devices. Creator helps us stay on the leading edge of culture and break through the clutter. In today’s crowded communication landscape, connecting with consumers is hard, so we look for things like that to tap into their passions."

With the Pepsi Art Dome, PepsiCo and Likuid Art were careful to not create an explicit commercial for the company but to build something that seamlessly integrated with the rest of the festival's art pieces. They used only "subtle branding towards the end," Chris Saunders, Likuid Art's creative director, told Fast Company. 

What's also unique about Creator is that it tends to act more like a startup itself rather than a division of a major corporation, wherein the staff are constantly experimenting, learning, and updating each idea that comes their way.

"For a Fortune 50 packaged goods company, that’s a massive shift and a great way to think about innovation—seeing something, learning from it, putting something out into the market, learning from that experience, and making it better the next time," Kaufman told Fast Company. "We’ll take what we did at Voodoo, which was incredibly successful, build on it, and the next thing we put into the marketplace will be more effective."

The Pepsi Art Dome was the first of three installations that PepsiCo will launch in partnership with Live Nation Entertainment. The next will be at Farmborough Festival in New York in June.

via NBC 

ATLANTA -- Maybe it wasn't the most scientific approach, but Atlanta came out with bragging rights after the company Honesty Tea put Atlantans through an honesty challenge.

Honest Tea went to 27 cities around America, all of the biggest cities. They set up an Honest Tea stand and put out racks of tea for a dollar a bottle.

You had to pay on an honor system, by putting a dollar in a box.

Thousands upon thousands of bottles of tea were sold, and the one city came out on top.

Honest Tea CEO Seth Goldman said, "This year, 94% of Americans were honest. The top city this year was Atlanta at a 100% honesty."

Only in one city did people take money out of the box. That happened in Washington D.C.

Pepsi, AMV BBDO FInally Find a Purpose for Drones

via AdWeek

Drones have been your new best friends since 2014. Whether filming remote G.E. plants, delivering puppies or replacing chief creative officers, they remain all the rage back home in your agency’s “throw mud at the wall” innovation meetings.

Now AMV BBDO, in collaboration with RSA and directing collective O.M.D. (not the band), may have discovered the first truly productive use for these newfangled flying machines: finding your stoned friends at a dance music festival.

Watch how it works here!

O.M.D. and AMV BBDO creative team Nicholas Hulley and Nadja Lassgott made this one happen with the help of “three practical working ‘Friend Finders'” and shot it at a real festival in order to make it more authentic.

Now the drone needs to be able to tell EDM fans how many hits of molly their missing friends have ingested in the interest of both convenience and public health.

Also: what was going on in the bushes? We may never know.

Mountain Dew to Bring Dew Shack Festival Tour to Liverpool

via Event Magazine

Britvic brand Mountain Dew will activate its Dew Shack festival experience at Liverpool International Music Festival from 27-31 August.

The festival tour features Europe's largest portable vert ramp

Mountain Dew has teamed up with experiential agency ID to devise the experience, which is designed to drive mass awareness among its target audience of 16 to 24-year old males.

The tour focuses in on the soft drink brand’s relationship with skate lifestyles, and includes the Live and Loud Tour, which features Europe's largest portable vert ramp as its centre.

A series of pro-skaters led by King Ramps will showcase their talents via demonstrations on the ramp throughout the festival. 

There is also the Dew Shack itself, which is constructed out of a shipping container, meanwhile graffiti artists will deliver live street art tutorials and street art displays. 

Brand ambassadors will be on hand to provide festival-goers with samples of the soft drink. 

The Dew Shack first visited Devon’s Gold Coast Ocean festival in June, as well as Lovebox festival in Victoria Park, London during the month of July.

The Dew Shack Festival Tour forms part of the brands wider digital, PR and social activity, which is focused around the UK skate scene.

This is not the first time Mountain Dew has worked with ID. In November of last year it selected the agency to devise an 'experiential shack', which appeared in Birmingham and on London's Southbank.

Send a Tweet to Coke's Digital Billboard, and It'll Tell You Fun Facts About Your Name

via AdWeek

Following up its clever drinkable billboard for Coke Zero, Coca-Cola has launched another eye-catching outdoor idea, this time in Times Square.

The new billboard continues to build off Coke's name-obsessed "Share a Coke" campaign by showing fun facts about the names of people who tweet to the sign.

At the heart of the display is a microsite that Coke and Google created together to pull in facts about the 1,000 names the soda company has printed on its cans and bottles this summer.

For example, people named Ben learn that the name has starred in 1,618 movies since 1986. Also, 2 percent of the world's Katies write stories for a living, according to Google's data. (And one of them works here.)

After a name is typed in, a handful of digital facts about the person's name flow across the screen out of an animated bottle of Coke for a few minutes.

To bring that same experience to its outdoor billboard in Times Square, Coke enlisted Clear Channel Outdoor to build a campaign that is activated through Twitter. Fans who tweet with their name and the hashtag #Cokemyname are populating the billboard in real-time.

Per Clear Channel Outdoor, once someone fires off a tagged tweet, it is displayed on the big screen within two minutes.

Then, a webcam set up across the street automatically snaps a picture of the person's name. Coke's social media team then tweets back the photo to the person within one hour. The idea is that someone doesn't need to be in Times Square to take part in the campaign.

"That potentially then seeds more social sharing amongst your Twitter followers [and] social impressions," said Sean McCaffrey, Clear Channel Outdoor's svp of national client strategy and partnerships. "It's the interesting convergence of the mobile, digital and physical worlds."

The activation has been live for two weeks so far and has served up roughly 200 custom messages per day, with the billboard itself being the only media promoting the campaign.

Last year, the soda giant's campaign included a simpler experiential component, where people could text in their names to light up a board. But with more out-of-home advertising moving towards digital, Clear Channel Outdoor says this year's campaign is different since it stems from an online concept.

"[It's] a really interesting use case for us that we've been trying to show advertisers for the last several years on how to create and use this platform that we're building," McCaffrey said.

Pepsi Pops Open Ultimate Fan Experiences This Summer

via PR News Wire

PURCHASE, N.Y., June 15, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Summer is here and Pepsi is making it memorable by delivering incredible, one-of-a-kind fan experiences to some of the hottest music and sporting events, restaurants and travel destinations. Today, the brand announced how it will kick off the season and deliver on its promise of unforgettable moments and exciting prizes with a summer campaign paired with an innovative app inviting fans to "pop open music every hour."

Starting now and continuing through the season, Pepsi is rewarding fans and their friends with the opportunity to win tickets to their choice of thousands of concerts, every hour. Additionally, fans will have the chance to access unique music experiences through Pepsi's new loyalty program and app, Pepsi Pass. Pepsi Pass is a rewards-based application (available on iOS and Android devices) where consumers earn points by entering and scanning codes on select Pepsi single serve products. In an innovative take on loyalty, Pepsi is also rewarding fans for having fun, enabling them to earn points by simply hanging out with their friends who also have the app. By downloading and signing up for Pepsi Pass, consumers can enter for a chance at hourly ticket prizing, or access a universe of prizes ranging from trips to the summer's top music festivals and concerts, a VIP experience during MLB All-Star Week in Cincinnati and dining credit with a range of Pepsi partner restaurants. 

"Pepsi's goal every year is to be at the pulse of pop culture and bring fans closer to the musicians, athletes and experiences they love," said Linda Lagos, Brand Marketing and Digital Director, Pepsi. "Nothing says summer like outdoor music festivals and live sporting events. We are excited to launch our 'Pop Open Music' campaign and Pepsi Pass, which will deliver unprecedented access to these experiences to more of our fans."

Here is a sampling of how Pepsi will deliver on amazing experiences and prizes this summer:

• Pepsi, through its new partnership with Live Nation, will send fans on a VIP experience to one of summer's most buzzed about music festivals, Lollapalooza.
• Pepsi and iHeartRadio join forces for another season to bring fans tickets to the iHeartRadio Music Festival in Las Vegas.
• Pepsi will send a few lucky fans to the MTV Video Music Awards in August.
• Summer would not be complete without baseball and Pepsi is working with MLB to bring VIP experiences to fans including an MLB All-Star Week package, viewing of batting practice, field-level tickets to regular season games and more.
• Hundreds of hospitality and food prizes await fans including hotel stays at SLS Las Vegas and Miamiand gift cards for Applebee's, Hard Rock Cafe and more.

Media supporting Pepsi Summer feature two :15 second television spots including the new hit single "Different Colors" from recording artists WALK THE MOON, and "We Make it Bounce" from celebrity DJ and producer Dillon Francis. The spots, which highlight the fan fun and experiences that await, are running on national and local broadcast outlets.

Lipton Ice Tea to Create Giant Water Slide for Summer Event Series

via Event Magazine

Unilever brand Lipton Ice Tea has revealed details of its London-based Daybreakers event series, which will feature a 100-metre slip and slide behind King's Cross station.

Rise & Slide is part of the London-based Lipton Ice Tea Daybreakers campaign

The Rise & Slide event will take place from 7.30am-7.30pm on 19 June along King’s Boulevard in north London.

Fans of the brand have been encouraged to bring swimwear and inflatables to the experience, and will have to register for free tickets through Lipton’s dedicated Be a Daybreaker microsite.

The first event of the series will take place this Friday (5 June) at the Sky Garden and feature a performance from Irish duo Hudson Taylor. One week later (12 June), the brand will host an exclusive morning viewing of the V&A’s exhibition, Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty.

Other Daybreaker events taking place throughout June and July include a luxury commute by cruise, a morning film screening with Rooftop Cinema Club and a ‘dawn party’ at Old Street Roundabout with Good Times DJ Norman Jay. 

Content from the events will be seeded on social networks targeted towards millennials. The campaign will also be supported by media partnerships with XFM and Time Out. 

Lipton Daybreakers will aim to reposition the ice tea as a brand to be consumed by young people throughout the year, rather than just on holiday.

Bud Light Whatever, USA Festivals Are the Future of Partying

via Your EDM

Anheuser Busch’s Bud Light brand sure knows how to throw a party. Not only are they the purveyors of one of America’s most popular party libations, they are also the connoisseurs of one kick ass party. Whatever, USA weekend long excursions are the events dreams are made of.

Last year’s inaugural Whatever, USA rewarded 1,000 #UpForWhatever consumers with an unforgettable weekend that included branded jets, LED suits, drag queen drag racing, hype hop karaoke with Lil Jon, a Vanilla Ice ice cream truck, concerts by Questlove, Charli XCX, Alesso (and more), and dozens of other unexpected, unbelievable experiences.

Bud Light then continued the #upforwhatever fun during Super Bowl XLIX by introducing the first-ever, equally crazy, Bud Light House of Whatever (which you can now see at various events and festivals like TomorrowWorld as it travels across the country).

This year’s event is shaping up to be even better than the last. This May 29-31st thousands of  exclusive invite-only guests and contest winners will flock to Catalina Island where the amazing Bud Light team has constructed an entire party city on the beautiful island. The experiences that await attendees will truly be mind-blowing.

The Evolution of Partying

First, crowds were going to 1 concert to see 1 band they loved. Then we evolved into going to 1 concert to see 2 bands we loved, then three. Then some genius came up with idea of a day long music event filled with music and art. Then someone capitalized on that idea to create a weekend long music festival that brought an entirely new experiential nature to enjoying music. Now, Bud Light has taken things one step further by curating an entire weekend of music + celebrities doing hilarious things that you can interact with. Vanilla Ice might roll up in an ice cream truck and serve you vanilla ice cream. Lil Jon might surprised people at a super small underground venue and act as a hype man while guests do karaoke. at Super Bowl. Nelly may join fans in participating in a dating game. Shaq might serve as a model in a painting class before hopping on stage to DJ. The sky is honestly the limit at a Whatever, USA event. On top of all of those amazing experiences you have some of the best live music being played by top artists in all genres. The best way to explain what the experience is like is to watch the recap video from the event last year. Be prepared for mad FOMO.

Take a look at Whatever, USA here

Jack Daniels Ramps Up Festival Tie-Ups In Sponsorship Drive

via Marketing Magazine

Tennessee whisky brand Jack Daniels has unveiled a number of music festival tie-ins as it seeks to align the brand with "great music moments".

For the first time, Jack Daniels will sponsor stages and experiential  areas at The Isle of Wight Festival, Kendal Calling, Boardmasters, The Great Escape and Hackney Wonderland festivals.

Experiential work will roll out at the festivals under its "Jack Rocks" initiative, with stage sponsorship focussing on showcasing emerging talent.

The brand will also sponsor three 'meat and whisky' festivals: Red Rooster, Grillstock and Meatopia.

Jack Daniels will promote the tie-ups on social media channels and through ticket giveaways.

"Our festival season is jam-packed this year, with a great mix of smaller, more boutique festivals, alongside some of the world’s largest and most famous," said Jack Daniel’s senior brand manager, Michael Boaler.

"It’s always been important for Jack to have a hand in supporting great new music, as well as more established artists, and this is exactly what we’re set to do this summer."

Jack Daniels added it had "significantly upweighted" investment in sponsorship this year.

Powerade's Fun 'Workout Billboards' Will Really Make You Sweat

via Ad Week

Climbing wall, punching bag and more

Billboards don't usually ask a lot of you, beyond a cursory glance. But these Powerade boards from Ogilvy Berlin put you right to work.

They're more like exercise installations than billboards. One of them features a scrolling climbing wall; another invites you to punch it as hard as you can. And all of them will make you work up a thirst that Powerade can then quench.

Your move, Ikea. Via Ads of the World.

Click to view

Pepsi Max debuts 'Genius', its first ever global brand campaign, with 'Drone Football' video

via The Drum

Click to view video

Pepsi Max has unveiled its first ever global brand campaign which sets to underline ‘Genius’ in a series of videos and experiences.

The socially-led global campaign was launched with the premiere of 'Drone Football' - the first of the content-led push which sees a group of friends play their weekly five-a-side match in a tech-heavy arena. 

Offering a glimpse of the future of football, the pitch was transformed with over 30,000 reactive LED lights installed into the surrounding landscape and a futuristic drone referee who even handed out yellow cards for rough play.

Kristin Patrick, senior vice president and chief marketing officer of PepsiCo global beverage brands, said: “We believe that the most exciting experiences don’t just happen - they’re created. The ‘Genius' campaign will show experiences that are elevated and made more exciting when something unexpected happens.

“In the case of 'Drone Football,' our first TV and digital ad under this new campaign, we’ve taken something that’s already exciting - a pickup game of football among friends - and elevated it by adding in surprising twists, like a drone that delivers a unique football, and light effects that at first surprise the footballers and then make their game even more exciting than it might have been."

Sebastian Micozzi, head of marketing and innovation at PepsiCo, added: “Pepsi Max now accounts for more than half of the brand's value in the UK, an achievement that was down to a rigourous and innovative digital marketing approach.

“We are hugely excited to be a part of the global 'Genius' platform launch - a campaign that we know will build on the success of last year through the creation of exciting digital content that provides consumers with entertaining moments and ingenious new experiences.”

The slot was directed by Scott Lyon and was captured in Barcelona with local players. The series be broadcast both digital and through traditional TV viewing.