Coke Bottles With First Names Return

via USA Today

If you can't find your name on a Coke bottle this go round, it's probably because you've got an odd-ball name.

Or, more specifically, you simply don't have one of the 1,000 most popular names in the nation.

Beginning May 1, Coca-Cola will bring back its wildly-successful "Share a Coke" promotion featuring bottles with familiar first names featured front and center within the iconic, red and white Coca-Cola label. The promotion, which lasts through the summer, will feature first names appearing on hundreds of millions of 20-ounce bottles of Coca-Cola, Diet Coke and Coke Zero.

For Coca-Cola, it's all about getting its soft drinks into the hands of young consumers who the cola giant hopes will flood social media with images of themselves drinking Coca-Cola beverages with their names imprinted across the labels. The numbers are convincing. Even as soft drink sales have been on the steady decline, during last year's promotion, Coca-Cola saw its largest-ever year-over-year growth in the 20-ounce package — more than 19%.

"We saw an incredible amount of self expression last year with Share a Coke," says Evan Holod, Coca-Cola brand director. In fact, when word of the promotion first began to spread last year, Share a Coke was the No. 1 global trending topic last July 29.

Which may explain why Coca-Cola executives are quadrupling the size of the promotion from 250 first names last year to 1,000 this year. Also, for the first time, U.S residents also will be able to customize and purchase Share a Coke bottles online — though for a serious premium. These 8-ounce glass bottles, with personalized labels that are heat-shrunk onto them, sell for $5 each — with free shipping for those purchasing five or more.

Despite the steep price-tag, Coca-Cola's goal is less about profiting from the venture and more about coaxing younger consumers to snap photos of themselves with their personalized bottles — then passing the images along via social media outlets like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat.

"Teens love to be famous," says Jennifer Healan, group director of integrated marketing content at Coca-Cola. "To teens, it's all about me, me, me. Think of all the selfies. Now, you can take a selfie with your name on a Coke bottle."

Last year's best-selling Coca-Cola bottle name: Chris.

The names that — based on third-party research — Coca-Cola expects to be 2015's best-sellers: Michael and Jessica.

One brand expert says that Coke's got this promotion right. "This fits perfectly with young people's desire both to be unique and to be part of the crowd," says brand consultant Tracey Riese. "Personalizing Coke — making an iconic brand all about us — is sort of the ultimate selfie."

Even then, Riese warns, these same younger consumers are increasingly wise to Coke's marketing ways and increasingly concerned about eating healthier. So, she warns, "targeting younger consumers with a promotion designed to increase their consumption of these products could potentially lead to a backlash."

NBA Ditches Coke for Pepsi After a 30-Year Partnership

via Ad Week

Pepsi gets beverage rights for all 4 major sports leagues

By severing Coca-Cola's nearly 30-year relationship with the NBA, PepsiCo will achieve a clean marketing sweep of the four major professional sports leagues this fall.

Under the five-year deal, PepsiCo will become the official food and beverage company of the NBA, WNBA, NBA D-League and USA Basketball and will control beverage rights for the NFL, MLB, NHL and NBA. Coke will not be an NBA sponsor for the first time since 1986.

By adding the NBA, Pepsi definitely wins this round of the cola wars, said John Sicher, editor of Beverage Digest.

"In any marketing tool chest, there are lots of different tools—player deals, big deals," Sicher said. "Today, PepsiCo took over one important tool in the sports marketing tool chest."

Other factors drove the deal, which covers both the U.S. and China, according to Emilio Collins, the NBA's evp of global marketing partnerships.

During negotiations, PepsiCo offered the NBA a chance to work with salty snacks inlcuding Doritos and Ruffles, as well as beverages like Mountain Dew, Aquafina and Brisk.

"The level of enthusiasm across their broad portfolio of brands was really second to none," Collins said.

"One of the most compelling aspects of this relationship is their incredible commitment to activation," Collins added. "Across not only the brands, but also in aligning with youth, we are working on a number of youth initiatives."

Coke won't be out of the NBA picture completely. Teams and players—like Sprite endorser LeBron James—can still cut their own deals with either Coke or Pepsi. But teams tend to sign with league sponsors.

Omnicom Group's BBDO handles the Mountain Dew brand while OMD handles media planning and buying for a variety of brands. PepsiCo spokeswoman Jennifer Ryan said the deal will not affect current agencies.

The deal between PepsiCo and the NBA was first reported Monday by SportsBusiness Journal and Beverage Digest. In a statement, PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi said she wants to "redefine the meaning of sports marketing partnerships."

Mountain Dew Turns Tweets Into Online Ads With the Return of Baja Blast

via AdWeek

We've already seen brands like Dunkin' Donuts and West Elm pull social media posts into ads, and now Mountain Dew wants in on the user-generated craze.

Earlier today, Mountain Dew announced it is bringing back Baja Blast, a tropical flavored drink, for a limited time. The soda brand is also launching Sangrita Blast, a citrus version of the drink. And to tease the launch, it's turning a cryptic social media campaign called Rogue Wave into paid media.

Last Friday, Mountain Dew started posting subtle hints on Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram and Twitter about bringing back the drink. On Snapchat, the brand showed quick clips of bottles, and fans tweeted back.

 "We started with discreet posts, but it didn't take long for Dew Nation to call us out and beg for the rumors to be true," said Christine Ngo, Mountain Dew's digital brand manager. "Some of our fans even created collages of all the images featuring Baja over the last few days to confirm to other members of Dew Nation that Baja was coming back."

Based on those reactions, Mountain Dew is now running ads on social media and men's lifestyle websites that use consumers' tweets.

Since beginning Rogue Wave, chatter around Baja Blast shot up 170 percent. On Facebook, the brand's organic reach and impressions increased 300 percent, thanks in part to the quick responses the brand is sending back to people who comment on its posts.

Last year, Mountain Dew used a similar promotion when it brought back Baja Blast for a short time. For that campaign, the brand used click-to-call tweets featuring professional skateboarder Paul Rodriguez.

This time, the brand used Nascar driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. to announce that Baja Blast is back.

Sprite Taps Wieden & Kennedy for Creative Duties

via AdAge

Wieden & Kennedy's New York office is picking up creative duties for Sprite, Ad Age has learned.

Sprite had been working with Translation, a piece of business won in September 2013. Prior to that Leo Burnett handled creative, but Sprite has worked with a number of other agencies -- BBH and Johannes Leonardo, for instance -- over the years.

According to people familiar with the matter, the pitch, which was conducted without a consultant, came down to Wieden and Interpublic's R/GA. Both agencies declined to comment. A representative for Sprite also declined to comment.

For Wieden, the Sprite work is an addition to its Coca-Cola portfolio, as the brand handles Coke as well as Powerade. It's also the latest win in a stream of account activity for the indie agency. In late March, the same month it parted ways with Weight Watchers, Wieden & Kennedy's Portland, Ore., office made its way onto theGeneral Mills roster by picking up creative for Yoplait. Wieden in February picked up the KFC account without a review, just a couple weeks after Verizon enlisted the shop for brand and strategy work.

Coca-Cola Co. had also been recently looking into a potential digital agency change for Sprite, according to people familiar with the matter. Meanwhile, sibling brand Coke in March reached out to 10 agencies, including Wieden & Kennedy, to pitch ideas for its next global campaign.

Translation last fall created a Sprite ad (above) starring LeBron James about the return to his hometown of Akron, Ohio, to play for the Cleveland Cavaliers, the team on which he began his career.

Coca-Cola spends relatively little on Sprite compared to other brands like Diet Coke and Coke. In 2014, the company spent about $13.6 million on U.S. measured media, according to Kantar Media, though that is up from $7.1 million in 2013. According to Ad Age DataCenter's analysis of Kantar figures, Coke spent about $202.1 million in 2013 on U.S. measured media.

Coke Zero Pours You a Drink from the TV

via PSFK.com

'Drinkable advertising' campaign shells out free soda from an on-air commercial, billboard and more

Whenever a commercial comes on TV of a warm pizza or a sweet treat near to dinner time, how quickly does it trigger your desire to order in? Considered one of the great successes of advertising is a brand’s ability to translate broadcast activations into purchases. With marketing moving farther and farther away from the ‘traditional’ in any sense of the word, age-old brands look to new forms of delivery to engage the modern consumer. So, instead of looking at a warm pizza or sweet treat through the screen, what if you could eat it at the cost of . . .nothing?

Coke Zero has launched a new initiative that has been touted as “drinkable advertising,” creating a fun way to shell out free products to unsuspecting consumers. In a series of drinkable campaign activations and events, Coke Zero has partnered with advertising agency Ogilvy & Matherand music discovery app Shazam.

The unveiling of the campaign coincides with Coca-Cola’s sponsorship of March Madness of the NCAA Men’s Final Four with a 26 x 36 foot drinkable billboard. The first-of-its-kind structure features a massive contour bottle and a swirling straw, spelling out the words “Taste It.” Weighing in at 23,000 pounds, the billboard magically appears to pour out ice-cold soda into six drinking fountains for anyone at the sampling station.

For Coke fans outside of Indianapolis, Coke Zero has also created a drinkable commercial so people watching TV can enjoy the beverage at their leisure. As it works, an on-air commercial synced up with Shazam, the service that lets users discover music and TV streaming around them, will offer mobile coupons for a free 20-ounce bottle of soda.

During the live broadcast, viewers watch a Coke Zero poured from the iconic glass bottle and are prompted to log in into the app. Within Shazam, the Coke Zero will continue to fill up until it reveals a free bottle to the user at any participating retailer.

The marketing campaign is rethinking traditional advertising in a way that offers consumers a refreshing opportunity to experience a physical product they might not otherwise engage. Following in the vein of the second screen user experience, the brand has created new touch points for consumers through direct out-of-home advertising.

Coke Zero will host other events that include a drinkable flyer and drinkable interactive mall kiosks where participants will also receive free soda.

Mountain Dew Is Launching a New 'Throwback' Soda Inspired by Its Tennessee Roots

via Ad Week

Mountain Dew mascot Willy the Hillbilly is making another comeback with DewShine, the brand's new soda.

To introduce the citrus-flavored beverage, which is made with real sugar and comes in clear glass bottles—the brand is calling it a "throwback"— the company is leaning on its Tennessee roots.

"This is kind of an homage to the Tennessee rebels who first developed Mountain Dew," said Greg Lyons, vp of marketing for Mountain Dew. "[We] have a really rich brand heritage—it was created about 75 years ago in 1940 in the backwoods of Tennessee—and it was because of this [heritage] that we were inspired to create Mountain Dew DewShine."

Created in Tennessee in the early 1940s, Mountain Dew's name was used as a euphemism for the illicitly created alcohol of the time, Moonshine. But while Mountain Dew is returning to its roots to an extent, the brand isn't producing an alcoholic beverage. According to Lyons, the only thing that DewShine and moonshine have in common is the "shine" being part of the name.

The beverage giant has been rolling out the new product slowly, and it should be available nationwide in the next few weeks.

To introduce DewShine, Mountain Dew has been conducting a sampling tour of the soda up the Dixie Highway, which will end in Bristol, Tenn., at Nascar's Bristol Motor Speedway race on April 19 and featuring Dale Earnhardt Jr. 

Earnhardt's car will be decorated with DewShine branding, and the company plans to create content with the racer for DewShine. Mountain Dew has also tapped the country music group Florida Georgia Line for DewShine promotions. 

According to Lyons, Mountain Dew hopes to grow DewShine over the next year and believes that its target audience—millennial males—will appreciate "authentic" messaging. 

Check out the new spot, created by Motive and titled "Rebel Spirit," below:

https://youtu.be/FnMNXZGh798

Coke Zero Entices Final Four Fans With a Drinkable Billboard

via Creativity Online

Coke is promising hoops fans a whole lot of soda to go with the NCAA Final Four action in Indianapolis -- with the help of a massive drinkable billboard.

A giant Coke bottle and twisty straw form the basis of a massive 26x36 foot display in Indianapolis' White River State Park. It features 4,500 feet of tubing that spell "Taste It" while dispensing Coke Zero to a sampling station below.

White River State Park is the site of Coke Zero's Countdown Concert on Saturday. There, fans of rival Final Four teams will be able to compete in a Coke Zero "drink off" on their smartphones. By blowing into the microphones of their phones, they can race to finish virtual Coke Zero bottles projected on digital screens at the event. Winning teams will get free bottles of Coke Zero.

During the Final Four broadcast on Sunday, Coke will also debut a "drinkable" commercial that drives viewers to use Shazam. In doing so, as the spot shows Coke Zero being poured from a bottle, consumers will see a glass on their phones filling up with the soda. Other elements in the campaign include interactive kiosks and flyers that turn into straws. See a teaser video of the billboard here.

4 Things You Need to Know to Market to Millennials

via Ad Week

Warped Tour founder dishes decades of advice

Kevin Lyman understands the millennial mind. Photo: Chad Singstock

If anyone understands the millennial mind (or that of Gen Z, coming up right behind it), it's Kevin Lyman. Since founding the live music event and brand strategy firm 4Fini in 1995, Lyman hasn't just immersed himself in youth culture—he has helped brands like Truth, Ernie Ball and Journeys stay connected to it. The Vans Warped Tour—his cornerstone event, which jams up to 100 bands into 10 hours of portable, mud-filled mayhem—is now the longest-running festival tour in North America. In his more than two decades as a marketer and promoter, Lyman has learned a thing or two about reaching teens and young adults. Here, he shares some of his best practices.

A brand must show utility.
The brands that sign onto Lyman's concerts aren't just those paying to be represented. They must forge a genuine connection to attendees, he said. For example, Rockstar Energy Drink, the title sponsor of the Rockstar Mayhem Festival, promotes the fact that its underwriting of the show helps keep ticket prices aligned with millennial wallets. And when Monster wanted to hand out free samples of its energy drink—with 160 mg of caffeine in each 16-ounce can—Lyman convinced the sponsor that filling those cans with water was a better idea, as it kept the already-pumped-up-enough crowds hydrated while providing valuable exposure for the product. "The fan wants to see why the brands are there," Lyman said. "They want to feel like the brand is bringing something more than marketing to them."

Millennials are not all the same age, nor do they behave that way.
According to the Pew Research Center, millennials were born as early as 1980, which means the target group is as young as 19 and as old as 35. The differences among that wide range of consumers are apparent in marketing live music. While younger millennials will spend the money and have the stamina to attend a multiday event like Coachella, postcollege millennials more often have responsibilities that restrict both their disposable income and time.

If marketers want to reach older millennials, Lyman said, a one-day event with a relatively low admission price makes more sense. "Craft beers are very happening for that audience right now, and mixing it in with a very focused type of music that sometimes can relate to where they were when they were 15 or 16—nostalgia for them—makes a lot of sense," he said. 

The Vans Warped Tour has become famous for its happy anarchy. Pictured: The band A Day to Remember performed in Tinley Park, Ill., last year. Such events offer brands an opportunity to connect with young consumers. | Photo: Chelsea Lauren/Getty Image

The backlash against social media pitchmen has already begun.
Lyman said the wealth of digital content out there makes it difficult to digest all the brand messages, especially since millennials are smart enough to recognize a paid pitchman, including by way of a 15-second Instagram video. In fact, Lyman's experience suggests that tangible goods are a more effective marketing tool than a social pitch. When Lyman surveyed millennial attendees of the South by Southwest Music Festival this year, it turned out that what they most wanted was posters featuring bands. Taken together with the resurgent popularity of vinyl records (which saw a 52 percent sales spike last year, per Billboard), we are seeing a renewed appreciation for the analog and for physical products.

Lyman thinks it's a trend marketers should pay attention to. "We're creating the digital blur right now," he said. "How we get our messaging out should be a balance between digital that makes sense and also going back to those tangible things that really affect people's lives."

Brands must be willing to give away free stuff.
In Lyman's experience, younger millennials look for tactile connections to the musical acts they listen to. Brands can join in that connection by giving away merchandise that promotes their goods and services. The automaker Kia did that by creating free posters into which it worked its name and logo. "You put a Fall Out Boy poster on your wall and it's got the Kia logo on there—that's going to reinforce a positive, impactful experience in their lives continuously," Lyman explained. "It's going to bring that fond memory when you're in eight feet of snow in Boston."

Pepsi Max House Event offers WMU students chance to win Jason Aldean concert tickets by solving puzzles, riddles and challenges this weekend

via Western Herald

Students can solve puzzles, riddles, and challenges at a Pepsi Max event this weekend to win Jason Aldean concert in Grand Rapids.

Western Michigan University was chosen as one of the few schools to have the event held at, said Derek Childers, student ambassador promoting the event. Students can sign up with teams of six to eight friends to compete in this event. The event will take place at a nearby house and the location will be emailed out to the leader of each team.

“I am hoping students will find this event something awesome to do with good friends as it’s a team building experience,” Childers said.

Players will be locked in one room and have to find their way out. This is done by completing different riddles, puzzles and challenges, Childers explained. Players can look under rugs, behind bookshelves or even turn on the television to find clues. The goal is to find a key and move on to the next room of the challenge.

Once all keys are found the clock will stop. Completion times will be compared to other teams to see if your team complete the challenge first. Pepsi will award the winners prizes for their efforts. The grand prize is 8 tickets to the upcoming Jason Aldean concert in Grand Rapids valued at 150$.

Students can sign up for the event at www.PepsiMaxHouse.com to take part in the challenge. Players must create a team name, choose their school, and find an available time slot.

Other various prizes will be given to participants who do not win first place. It’s scheduled to take place between 3 p.m. and 12 a.m. April 3-4. Team information, questions and concerns can be forwarded toderek.a.childers@wmich.edu.

Lipton Hits The Road For Sparkling Iced Tea

via Marketing Daily

Tea brand Lipton pouring the bubbly in Grand Central Terminal’s Vanderbilt Hall last Friday as part of a grassroots program to promote its new, category first, carbonated Sparkling Iced Tea beverage. 

The grassroots national tour, under Lipton's “Be More Tea” campaign, centers on a installation that uses a wall-sized transparent projection screen impregnated with photo-excitable particles. What passersby see are people who appear to levitate while holding cans of the new beverage, an effect that mirrors the TV ad creative for the new product. 

The screen, technically a nano-optical particle diffusion screen, was positioned in front of a lounge area that Lipton did as part of the installation. 

The tour, which will visit events around the country, is part of a campaign that has been running for several weeks that includes advertising, consumer experiences, and social video elements. Those feature “Pitch Perfect” star Brittany Snow and the band American Authors, whose interpretation of the ’60s-era folk hit “Tiny Bubbles” is the campaign’s anthem. At the installation and at events around the country Lipton is giving out samples and cans of the Sparkling Iced Tea, which comes in  lemonade, raspberry and peach.

Linda Bethea, senior director of marketing, who was at the March 20 event, tells Marketing Daily that the brand is giving out over a million samples as part of the grassroots effort that has put the brand at Sundance and this year's SXSW. New digital content includes a series of short videos featuring Snow, in which she auditions for the part of spokesperson for the new tea but gets fired because she just isn’t bubbly enough. Undeterred, she shows up on set again and again to try to convince the director that she deserves the role. At one point she interrupts the band, jealous that the director finds them ebullient but not her. 

“We wanted someone who embodied the spirit of the brand. She hits that sweet spot,” says Bethea, adding that a number of agencies have been involved on all fronts: Mindshare, Amplitude Marketing Group, DDB, and Kinetic, which created the installation. 

Bethea says that while the beverages category is saturated, iced tea is “on fire. It is the fastest-growing category.” She adds that Lipton, which has leading share, is especially reaching out to consumers who are trying to cut back on soda. Currently, she says, the brand has one TV spot in rotation, in 30-second and 15-second versions, and digital content includes a “When Tea met Bubbles” video campaign on Instagram.