Mentos Viral Marketing Case Study: Turning unexpected online attention to your advantage

Introduction

With consumer media consumption habits changing, social media has become an important marketing platform for all CPG manufacturers. This case study looks at how two brands Mentos and Diet Coke harnessed an online video craze to catalyze their social media marketing in driving sales and creating a brand buzz.

Features and benefits

• Achieve sales growth by understanding the opportunities that can be realized through harnessing a buzz around viral video content
• Enhance credibility of sales pitches by better understanding how consumer social media can enhance the brand-consumer dialogue
• Stimulate ideation for social media campaigns through learning from best practice examples specifically from the CPG sector

Highlights

As social media usage has grown, so has its importance to CPG marketers. Although first filmed back in 2006 when social media was still very much in its infancy, the “geyser” film still retains high on-line viewerships and the reaction between the candy and the soda has been integrated into school science lessons.
The brand legacy in the US of this online campaign and the buzz it generated has seen continued sales growth for the Mentos brand and the re-direction of almost the brand’s entire marketing budget into shopper marketing and social media over 2010.

Your key questions answered

• What have been the key consumer drivers of social media over the last five years?
• How has the dynamics of social media usage changed over the last five years?
• How can marketers take optimal advantage of the buzz created by on-line films crazes?
• How can social media be used as part of a wider marketing strategy?

Table of contents

DATAMONITOR VIEW
CATALYST
SUMMARY
ANALYSIS
SOCIAL MEDIA BUZZ IS AN INCREASINGLY IMPORTANT PART OF FOOD AND DRINKS MARKETING
Social media has shown explosive growth
Social networks have risen in parallel with social mediaThe other major shift in Internet usage between 2006 and today is the move toward the social network. In the early 2000s, the primary means of two-way online communication was through email, with the web acting primarily as a one-way medium for consumers to absorb content. Blogs and online communities tended to be confined to discussion of specific issues, hobbies, or political discussions, rather than a way for people to communicate online with their real-world social groups. Now, this has been completely reversed, with consumers spending more time communicating on social networks (in the developed world, primarily but not solely on Facebook) than they do using email. According to Nielsen Online, the shift took place in 2008, as in that year "member communities" accounted for almost 10% of all time spent on the Internet, placing them just ahead of the total time spent on email sites. On social networks, everything is interactive and realtime, and the platform is designed to allow maximum viral spreading of links, videos, and photographs that people find interesting and want to recommend to their friends (both real-world and online friends).
Social networking is not just for young adults any more
Food and drinks companies have lagged behind in social media but are starting to catch up
THE MENTOS AND DIET COKE EXPERIMENT ACHIEVED SUSTAINED CONSUMER AND MEDIA ATTENTION
The initial buzz was almost unprecedented in its size
Unlike many online fads, the experiment remains prevalent in consumers’ minds
PERFETTI AND COCA-COLA ADOPTED VERY DIFFERENT APPROACHES TO THE VIRAL STUNT
Perfetti engaged rapidly with EepyBird to drive and grow the campaign
Subsequently, Perfetti used the experiment as a springboard for its overall marketing strategy
Coca-Cola was slow to engage, but eventually found an angle that worked
CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS
APPENDIX
CASE STUDY SERIES
METHODOLOGY
Secondary sources
FURTHER READING
ASK THE ANALYST
DATAMONITOR CONSULTING
DISCLAIMER

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