Coke/Mentos Videos: An Important Lesson for Every Brand

By B.L. Ochman Earlier this week, the Wall Street Journal had an article about the $10 million dollars worth of publicity Mentos mints received as a result of an amateur video of an oddball experiment: people dropping Mentos candies into bottles of Diet Coke. The video, which was viewed nearly a million times in one week, was made by two guys from Maine who spent their own money to buy 100 liters of Diet Coke and dozens of packs of Mentos. They made a Fantasia-esque musical fountain with cascading streams of beautiful goop.

Coke's dark-ages marketing people who just don't get it, basically said "we want people to drink our soda, not play with it." Mentos marketing folks, noting that they're annual ad budget is way under $10 million, are not only delighted, they want to feature the video in advertising and hire its creators to tour on Mentos' behalf.

We're still mighty, cried the dinosaurs
There have been more than 800 other videos made and posted online showing Coke/Mentos geysers. They've all been posted on free video sites like You Tube and Google Videos. No harm done, just good sticky fun.

But what if there had been 800 negative videos? Would most companies even have a clue of where to look for them? How many companies know how to monitor MySpace and other social media communities? It's a brand new world, and this story ought to be a heads up to every CMO who's still saying "this social media stuff isn't important to us."

Well... To be fair, the Coke rep in the article didn't say "we want people to drink our soda, not play with it."

The exact quote is: "We would hope people want to drink it more than try experiments with it."

That doesn't really strike me as an unreasonable thing FOR A *BEVERAGE* COMPANY TO SAY!

Further, the Coke rep's statement is not necessarily dissuasive. Granted, it's not an enthusiastically *supportive* response, but I'm willing to let that go. Just because someone delivers a conservative and measured opinion about a social media phenomenon (instead of breathless, uncritical enthusiasm) is not, by itself, evidence that he or she doesn't "get it."

Wait until Coke tries to sue someone on this basis. *Then* people will have all sorts of reasonable opportunities to jump up and down, point, laugh, and shout the seven words that -- to borrow from Bob Metcalfe -- will kill our profession:

"You just don't get it, do you?"

DISCLOSURE: No, Coke isn't a client.

Phil: You missed my point which was that, like it or not, new media is going to bite big companies on the ass and they need to pay attention to the phenomenon whether they are breathlessly excited about it or not.

what i wrote was Coke's dark-ages marketing people who just don't get it, "****BASICALLY**** said "we want people to drink our soda, not play with it."

what I did not write: that it was a direct quote.

what they missed is pretty damn basic. There are 800 of their customers online with videos they made that spreads the Coca-Cola name in a way that is fun and funny. Millions of people are watching these videos. And none of them cost Coke one penny.

The Wall St Journal picked up the story. Coke would have looked a lot more savvy if they'd had a sense of humor.

and hey, if Coke's not an Edelman client, are you pitching them?

We found this video too, really cool. At the office we really didn't believe that it was true, but it really does react. We're gonna try something crazy next time and put it on film. We found this site www.CokeMentos.com, which does a good job of talking about the craze and showcasing the Top 5 videos.

Matty M.

Check out www.mentosgeysers.com

Mentos gets it.

Thanks Amanda. That's brilliant.
BL