Friday, April 23, 2010

The Case For White Out

This spring is going to be special. Once again, every Dew fan will have their own opinion about which Dew should be added to the permanent line. Taste is so personal: taste in music, art, clothing styles, pizza toppings, and, of course, Dew flavors. In 2008, I was a fan of all three DEWmocracy flavors. I felt it was my "DEW-ty" to vote anyway, and I ended up voting for Revolution because of the packaging! I never had been a fan of the black backgrounds on Code Red, Live Wire, Supernova, or Voltage. Since I liked all three DEWmocracy flavors equally, my decision came down to a secondary trait... never underestimate such things. Let's discuss a couple secondary qualities that I strongly believe could end up giving White Out the edge in April:
1. It's Clear Dew. (Officially, white flash-colored Dew.)

+ I could not be happier that white flash was chosen over the two yellowish shades. When I first sampled the seven potential Dews, I did so without looking at the color. Food/soda color does influence people's opinions... and taste buds. If White Out had emerged as a yellow beverage, comparisons to classic Mtn Dew (which I don't see) may have had increased believability.

+ White Out's color easily alludes to the visualization of snow-capped mountains. The sweet winning label art made by Andre Z has been modified to fit the super smooth wintry White Out theme.

+ Those who remember Crystal Pepsi might bring it up after learning about this crystal Dew but they'll quickly pipe down once they take a swig.

+ While I'm not entirely certain that the product released in April will completely lack opacity, White Out would comfortably fit in places (like some stadiums, theatres, lecture rooms) where everything but H2O is prohibited or discouraged. I have poured Sierra Mist into water bottles in the past, but c'mon! Dew!

2. Awesome alternate meanings: blizzards and correction fluid

+ In weather terminology, a whiteout condition means visibility is zero because of snow.

+ In the universe of office supplies, whiteout is used to blot over mistakes on paper.

+ Possible slogan: "Blot out" a dull moment with a bottle of Mtn Dew White Out.
+ I have a wonderful correction fluid-themed ad idea that I'll reveal eventually.


The flavor's there. The packaging is solid. Getting undecided voters on board could be key to White Out's success. Follow White Out flavor nation on Twitter: http://twitter.com/MtnDewWhiteOut May the best Dew win.


-A White Out flavor nation member

Thanks anonymous White Out man! I think that you make great arguments for the success of White Out... it will be interesting to see what drink the American drinkers at large like. I want to make one clarification on the color, it really is white - not clear. There are tons of clear and white-ish sodas out there, but have you ever seen a really white, white out conditions white, soda?

REMEMBER TO VOTE FOR MTN DEW WHITE OUT! Go to www.DEWmocracy.com, or text 493 to 68339!

Saturday, April 17, 2010

How To: Get Into DEWlabs


Participation in Mountain Dew's exclusive DEWlabs is invitation only. However, there are some things you can do that will help you get an invite. Participate! Follow Mountain Dew on Facebook and Twitter. Sign up for the DEWsletter, enter into contests. After all, for them to invite you they have to have your email address and know that you are active online. Sometimes, there is a place on www.mountaindew.com that you can enter in your email address if you want to be considered for DEWlabs.

Once you get the invite, you're not necessarily in. Mountain Dew is looking for a particular type of Dew fan... an uber fan, a fan that goes the extra mile for their Mountain Dew. Brand manager Brett O'Brian has described DEWlabs members as:
" ...passionate not just in ‘I love this brand,’ but ‘I want to talk about it;’ ‘its part of who I am;’ ‘it’s a part of my everyday;’ ‘I eat, drink, sleep Mountain Dew.’ It represents who they are."

I remember that when I got my invite, there were a few survey questions that reflected this. How you respond is a factor in your eligibility. Things like "How often do you drink Mountain Dew?" and "Which soda do you prefer over all?" as well as questions about my age and activity online. Are you the type of Dew fan that the brand is looking for?

Remember, DEWlabs and DEWmocracy are very much rooted in social media internet (things like Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, Youtube, etc.) if you want to participate you should probably be familiar with all of these enough to have an account in many of them. I remember at the time I was invited I had a couple of blogs, a Twitter account, a Facebook, a YouTube, and some others. I am not sure about the age requirement... I am 25. But I have heard of people who said they were rejected for being too young, so the age limit might be 18.

Once you get in, give me a shout out! Get ready to participate on a level beyond just entering to win free stuff, get ready to help shape the brand you love!

DEWlabs has been an awesome experience for me. For the first time, I have seen the faces behind a big corporate brand. I used to think that corporate big wigs were so concerned with only the bottom line that they had forgotten about the consumer as individuals... now when I buy a bottle of Mountain Dew I think of the super nice people I have interacted with in the Dew brand team. I think of Angie, Matt, Courtney, and Brett. Real people who took the time to stop and listen to me, an individual consumer. I look at the packaging of Mountain Dew White Out, and I think of Andre the designer. I see the commercial, and I think of Steve and Jen. In the end, Mountain Dew is all about people.

You can apply by clicking this link: Join DEWlabs

Friday, April 16, 2010

When Your Crowd Gets Bored: Stir Up The Mud


It has been an arduous journey these last 6 months in DEWlabs. An unruly pack of titan Mountain Dew fans has created three new sodas hand in hand with big corporate marketers and brand people. We have all played a part. I personally have been included on conference calls with the designers of the label, the makers of Mtn Dew White Out's commercial, and Pepsi PR. We have worked with Jamie Wilkinson and all his internet famousness. The White Out team, of which I am a leader, drove over 2,500 new followers to our flavor's Twitter account @MtnDewWhiteOut in just over a week, we grew a following on our Tumblr blog, and have created loads of media. Next Monday (April 19th) the sodas we made will be released into the market, the commercials we helped shape will play on the air, and our flavors will be at the mercy of the nation.

It has been a long time. We have all spent hours debating and picking apart each decision that was ours. Now we are a bit tired.

As a DEWlabs community, we have been participating in a little friendly competition amongst ourselves for extra advertising money for our flavor. All of this has been coordinated by Jamie Dubbs and his team. What was meant to be an entertaining internet skill and buzz builder, turned into - I think - something that just required too much effort on the part of regular DEWlabs members. People started to get worn out and complain, and this last challenge things turned a bit viscous when the Typhoon flavor nation thought Distortion was stealing content from their site. They asked Distortion politely to remove the content, and then sent "a wave" of comments to their Facebook page demanding the content be removed... some of the comments by Typhoon fans turned hateful. Distortion got upset. Suddenly, this wasn't that fun anymore.

So what do you do when your crowd that you have been sourcing degenerates to this? Stir up the mud!

There is a brand new DEWlabs site for us to play in, and a boat load of new members. Using the new site requires renewing your profile. I think this is so that the burned out people (who probably wont renew their profile) can be separated from the motivated ones. It is exciting to have fresh blood in the system. That last competition, all but just a few of my team had gotten burnt out out... in the end there were only three of us that really contributed. The new members will be anxious to prove themselves, and us old members will get to play the part of experienced insider. The new site has been up for 3 days... of the over 4,000 original DEWlabs members only about 450 have logged in and renewed their profile. The shipment of fresh blood begins to arrive today.