Everybody has by now seen the Mentos-in-the-Coke-geyser video. At the recent local AMA meeting Pete Healy, VP of Marketing for Mentos, talked about the experience and where it is going. The iconic consumer generated media has inspired over 9500 other videos. Mentos has moved a 'significant' amount of their marketing mix from TV to online. This summer Mentos ran a video contest which got about 200 entries, of which 150 are posted online. Mentos has a site highlighting the contest and related topics. They have connected with the Blue Man Group How to Be a Megastar tour to promote the candy with TV commercials that mimic the BMG's performance and some have started to air. No indication if sales have increased for Mentos.
The performers of the original phenomenon have a site, and a new performance called Experiment 214. It got over a millions views in the first five days of release. Its fun, like the first one, but not really distinctively new.
Mentos has certainly done an excellent job making much of CGM. Much better than ignoring the video. Despite some concern about experimenting leading to injury, there have been few problems. Early on they offered a co-marketing effort to some lesser-known soft drink manufacturers, with no luck. Coke now seems to be well-engaged with the effort. Linking this to new efforts like the blue man group may be harder to make work. As Healy suggested, you have to keep in mind that this is about marketing candy, and not curing cancer.
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