Collaboration Cast

Most of you are already familiar with the explosive reaction that you get by adding both Mentos and Diet Coke.  For those that are no, you should take a look at the video below:

In the summer of 2006, entertainment site eepybird.com released a video showing what happens when Mendos candies react with Diet Coke.  The resulting “geyser” video spread virally, gerating thousands of views each hour and passing the 3 million mark within a few months and to date the video has been viewed 6,835,462 times.

Since the release of the first video, Mentos was quick to capitalise on this publiscity and shipped eepybird free cases of Mentos for further experimentation.  Also, they sponsored the “Make Your Own Mentos Geyser” competitions.  Which also created additional viral spread of videos and today in YouTube over 1790 mentos and diet coke videos exist.

In 2006, Mentos sales went up 20% - the highest increase in the company’s history. Mentos is a good example of a company who immediately reacted positively to an opportunity to gain free publicity and leveraged the publicity to not only help create more publicity, but also drive to record sales.

I believe the take home lesson for marketers is that we always have to be listening and staying attentive to how people are using and marketing our brands.  By listening and observing we may be able to catch a trend that will allow us to get free publicity and sales.  Mentos was listening and capitalized, why shouldn’t you do the same?