Diet Coke and Mentos: the GeyserMaker!
Have your teenagers been sneaking large quantities of Mentos and Diet Coke from your house? Seen any strange explosions in your back yard lately? It might be the latest teen Internet rage—at least the latest involving candy and a soft drink. (Our generation's was Space Rocks and regular Coke. Remember?)
"Go to any video-sharing website, such as YouTube," writes the Financial Times of London, "and hundreds of amateur films can be found showing bottles of Diet Coke transformed into foaming geysers or home-made rockets when mixed with the mints."
Hilarious. But what's really interesting is Coca-Cola's reaction to the web sensation.
Seeing the chance to attract a prime market (teens and young adults) to its web site, Coca-Cola has
recast its web site to accept and show amateur videos—not necessarily of Mentos and Diet Coke geysers, necessarily. (Go here and choose North America/English. The graphics are beautiful, as you'd expect from Coke.)
The Financial Times piece links Coke's new video site to a growing trend of media fragmentation—companies are finding it harder to reach big chunks of markets with a few buys. That tells me we're likely to see more moves like this from restaurant chains and other large retailers. That'll be especially true for brands that, like Coke, market through emotional connections with consumers. It's called, creatively, emotional marketing.
An aside, while we're talking YouTube: There's a cool new piece of shareware that downloads YouTube video directly to iTunes or your video iPod. Check it out. Now you can take your best Diet Coke/Mentos explosions on the road with you.