Mountain Dew Case Study Name: Shafiq Lalani Student #: 997464603 Email: shafiq.lalani@gmail.

com

Mountain Dew Case Study A critical strategy for Mountain Dews campaign has been bringing together its original rural target market with the large scale urban market that it would later go after. Mountain Dew was able to effectively bring together the active sport lifestyle of the country, with the teen cool factor in modern urban centers. They were able to achieve this success by consistently leveraging pop culture as a tool to reach the teen market. The Done That creative, while only trying to generate trials of Mountain Dew, had a more significant impact. In fact, the appeal of the ad itself was so great that it was able to influence pop culture and essentially brought the phrase Been there, done that, into common day language. This was the first major victory that the campaign achieved by utilizing pop culture to its advantage. The products real success however began with the launch of the Diet Dew campaign which interestingly enough occurred at the same time as the surge in popularity of alternative sports such as skateboarding, snowboarding etc. As Mountain Dew was transitioning into the urban market, it took advantage of the increasingly popular extreme sports, and in turn helped it grow. By giving it even more access to mainstream media and sponsoring the X games, Mountain Dew strengthened not only the trend at the time, but itself in the process. As more people jumped on the extreme sports bandwagon, more and more individuals found themselves able to relate to Mountain Dew and the daring, fun lifestyle it represented. Mountain Dews next success was also an example of how they have been able to use current trends in pop culture to their advantage. As the GenX ethos of general cynicism towards corporate lifestyle grew, the parking attendant creative exhibited the brands personality trait of cynicism towards the uptight businessman. Once again this campaign showcased a trait that the target audience would identify with. Thus, it can be seen that Mountain Dew used and contributed to the pop culture trends at the time, and did so in a way that made the brand & product highly desirable.

In order to assess the most optimal creative the following criteria have been used: 1. Effectively Promotes Product Benefits, 2. Brand Image/Personality, 3. Appeals to Target Audience, 4. Works Well with Existing Campaign(s) and 5. Entertaining/Interesting. The rationale for

choosing product benefits as a key criterion is that the creative must illustrate the products functional and emotional benefits easily without having the consumer thinking what the product really does. Brand Image was also chosen because it is central to the success of Mountain Dew. Typically brands stand for a certain set of values that appeal to their target group. In this case the brand image for Mountain Dew is fun, exhilarating and quenches your thirst. Therefore, the creative should include a story that effectively conveys this brand image and ensures that consumers can relate to these different traits and the product itself. The next criteria relates to the fact that the creative should capture the target markets attention. The reason this criteria was chosen was because there is a specific target that Mountain dew wants to target, males who are aged 18-39. Therefore ensuring that the creative appeals to these audiences in particular is of utmost importance. Moreover, we must consider the integrative nature of any brand and its advertisements over time. Consumers expect consistency and will be confused if the message from Mountain Dew changes significantly in different ads. As such, the brand voice of Mountain Dew which is represented by a variety of items like the dew dudes and extreme sports, should be maintained especially since this strategy has been so powerful in the past. The last criteria that was chosen was that the ad should be

entertaining/interesting. Any impactful ad needs to capture the attention of viewers and ensure it is memorable, the only way this will happen it if there is a deliberate goal to making it entertaining and interesting.

Criteria
Appeals to Target Criteria Audience

Labor of Love
to older audiences Labor of Love (-) Appeals more

Cheetah

Dew or Die

Mock Opera

Showstopper
(-) Synchronized movement style Showstopper performance may be unfamiliar (+)Music is (+) Energizing universal, target and thirstaudience can quenching easily relate to the as group conveyed the sports aspect. performers all drink Dew after a tiring routine (+) Exhilaration and excitement developed (+) Incorporates through the both action and and upbeat music sports thoroughly tricks throughout through the performance performance

Promotes Product Benefits (Functional & Works with Emotional) existing campaign

Brand Image (Exciting, Taking Entertaining caring about child things (-) Soap operabirth. lightly, like beginning is Fun) not as interesting

(+) Has universal (+) Saving the (-) In general, appeal, regardless world, getting target Cheetah Dew or Die primary Mock and females than of race and gender. the girl, partying wont recognize Opera actual target Interesting and are all elements Queens market. 18 year exciting to any that old Bohemian (-) No Functional (+) Incorporates (-) 18 Noyear Functional (+) Conveys old males view. would Rhapsody. Benefits of cannot energizing/exhilar males Benefits of thirst- but relate to (+) Airing during identify with strong music may energy/flavor/thirstenergy/flavor/thirst quenching ation feeling childbirth and Super Bowl can (-) Serious still captivate quenching benefits from through the intense -quenching labor. an already maysome(+) Super (+) Shows emotional captivate (+) Conveys lyrics Bowl chase between the beginning high-energy put off the highaudience is just benefit of excitement dew dude and the level of excitement Theyre audience energy Super diverse enough to just before the flying via the party scene thirsty cheetah. Bowl audience understand baby arrives, as the in the cabin dudes... (+) Integrates parody doctor prepares (+) thirst-quenching as himself by catching Exhilaration the remaining Dew More about (+) Action packed (+) Concept of the(-) baby with a integrated Dudes drink in the (-) Very the Dew Dudes and incorporates different mood parody has been baseball glove. through desert. than about the sports theme well than usual, very usedextreme in prior sports drink, the with the bike chase, serious to begin. Mountain Dew scenes. experience, or in-line with (-) Limited Ads about sports exhilaration, sports in (-) Many people will campaign (+) Daring Dew (+) Dew Dudes (+) Clear (+/-) Parody (-) Deviates in (+) Being more about tie-in take this negatively Dude as he chases taking their duties general makes mood, since the unconventional (i.e. enjoyment and (+) Use because it is making the Cheetah, puts to save the world fun of of wellthe setting is more chasing Cheetah) relaxing in the known music is the birth of a child not hand in mouth, all lightly original. May a follows existing consistent soserious sacred with and gives for getting the drink cabin (+) Having fun in also be perceived childbirth scene. campaign with past the image of the (+) Fun and the cabin instead negatively by creatives company as not adventure theme fans of the shown through the (+) Immediate dangerous situation hook for viewer, and location with the actionpacked chase scene. (+) Unpredictable beginning (the cheetah chase), progresses well and easy to understand (-) Complicated storyline is difficult to understand. Ad may go too long. (-) Very serious introduction causes loss of interest

to target audience. Slightly dull and serious start causes loss of interest. (+) Moderately humorous if audience watches entire way through

(+) Daring lifestyle represented via the sports included in the routine (+) Fun element original clearly present in (+) Upbeat (+) Daring/Fun (+) theSynchronized enjoyment of music grabs movement lifestyle the actors attention, as does performances not depicted familiarity with usually done with through the song extreme sports sports, this unique aspect will draw scenes the attention of viewers

(+) = Pro (-) = Con Based on the justification above, my recommendation would be to go with the cheetah creative. The communication strategy in this campaign involves symbolizing that drinking Mountain Dew is an exhilarating experience. The ad captures this perfectly and scores high on most of the key criteria identified above.