Loyal DEWsciple: Cache native hip-deep in soda flavor promotions

Originally published HERE, in the Herald Journal.

Logan native Matt Jorgensen was featured in a
Mountain Dew commercial for the flavor
White Out, (Jennifer Meyers/Herald Journal).

Cache Valley native Matthew Jorgensen will never forget the first time he tried a Mountain Dew. It was his fourth birthday, which was videotaped. Friends brought a brown paper bag with seven different cans of soda to his house. He reached for the Mountain Dew at random.

"I tried it then, and I remember loving it ever since," said Jorgensen, who was raised in Hyde Park. "Birthdays were a special occasion, so I got to drink a lot of soda on my birthday."

It's safe to say that Mountain Dew has been a part of Jorgensen's whole life. He even had the citrus-flavored drink at his side while his wife was in labor.

Jorgensen never thought he'd be a part of helping to conceptualize, name and market a Mountain Dew flavor with a handful of other people who were just as crazy about the drink as he was.

But that's exactly what happened to the graduate researcher attending the University of Utah when Mountain Dew launched three new flavors - Mountain Dew Distortion, Mountain Dew White Out and Mountain Dew Typhoon - that were developed in partnership with consumers during the brand's DEWmocracy 2 campaign. It was a consumer-driven campaign that enabled more than 4,000 of the brand's most loyal fans - referred to as Dew Labs members - to co-create three new beverages.

Jorgensen was selected as "president of the White Out Flavor Nation," creating Facebook and Twitter pages and doing other things to get people to vote for the flavor.

"I babied it from the beginning," Jorgensen said. "As a die-hard Dew fan, I'm just really excited to be a part of the process. It also feels really good as a consumer to be listened to. They've taken listening to a completely new level."

Jorgensen joked that there's a certain lingo between Mountain Dew drinkers like himself that non-Mountain Dew drinkers might not understand - so he explained how he feels about the drink in layman's terms.

"I would drink a regular Mountain Dew before I went out and did something really big and exciting, like ride a bike off a big jump," Jorgensen said. "Then I'd drink a White Out when I'm chillin' at home with AC on later thinking about how awesome it was."

Jorgensen helped film the Mountain Dew commercial, "Here's to the loud." Jorgensen, of Salt Lake City, appears at the end of the commercial to hold up one of the newest flavors of the popular soda drink.

"Dew fans across America, your voice has been heard," the announcer said. "A new flavor of Mountain Dew."

For the commercial, Mountain Dew hand-selected a group of "Dew All-Stars" from across the country, each representing one of the seven flavors to celebrate its Back by Popular DEWmand program. The program is meant to promote many re-releases of old Mountain Dew favorites. Jorgensen was selected as the All-Star for Mountain Dew White Out.

The film crew also shot Jorgensen at a party that the company threw for him in Logan at his father's house. The film shows Jorgensen meeting up with friends there before they go downtown with cell phones and cameras on a "scavenger hunt." Shots of the Wells Fargo Bank and Zions Bank can be seen.

Celebrate the Individual Dew Drinker - Throw Them a Party

Printscreen captured from Mountain Dew's Facebook page.

Ever worry about your most passionate consumers becoming lost in the crowd?  That, if not recognized, they will slowly drift away and disaffect, taking their online influence and crowdsourced motivation with them?  Maybe you know how powerful negative social dialog can be, and you wish to combat it by drowning it out with as much user generated positive feedback as possible.

Mountain Dew and Motive have a plan to navigate these tricky waters.  The idea is to celebrate the power of the collected consumers' voice by bringing back old flavors that they have been demanding (hence, back by popular DEWmand), while acknowledging the role of some passionate fans in the flavor's redux.

First, the super fans are recognized by making them a "Flavor All-Star" for the drink they have championed.  Part of the deal is that they get a party, thrown by Motive, custom tailored to them in their Dew-loving uniqueness.  Out of Mountain Dew's 5+ million of regular Facebook fans, and 4000+ Dew Labs members, 7 make the cut.  For these fans, the recognition means everything.  People in the 18-30 year old demographic really want to be recognized as special, and not in a superficial way.  It's a way for the brand to show a few die-hards that they really know and care about them.

These fans then make up a panel of judges for a promotion.  Their face is plastered up on Facebook, demanding respect for the contributions they have made and notifying the world that they are the revered judges of the upcoming online contest.  The contest is geared to try and spawn even more super fans.  Followers of Mountain Dew submit media via Facebook to show their love for their favorite flavor, the winner - chosen based on their passion for their flavor - will win a flavor party of their own fueled by Mountain Dew, thrown Motive.  After the submissions are narrowed down by the community at large, the super fan judge panel will make the final decision in collaboration with brand managers.

At the end of the day, the most passionate Dew fans are rewarded for their efforts, Dew Labs members are motivated by the sight of what is possible for excelling in the program, the seeds of the next generation of ultimate fans is sown, and regular fans start having a deep-impression brand experience all while simultaneously promoting the limited time offer return of Mountain Dew Pitch Black and Supernova through extremely efficient social media.

This, my friends, is why Mountain Dew and Motive kick-ass.  This is why they are winning Ex Awards and landing on the cover of Event magazine and getting their name thrown around by Adage and Mashable.  They are brilliant, cost effective, unstoppable.  I am one of these super fans, I know in a weird way that I am a tool in the giant marketing machine.  But, I feel like these guys respect me.  They know me.  They have listened to and implemented many of my suggestions.  And, I have tirelessly promoted them on my own.  For free.  Why?  Because I know them and respect them.  And, in a weird way I feel like I am helping them out.  It's all about a mutual respect, me doing what I can for them and them doing what they can for me.  Dew fans helping Dew fans who also happen to be marketers.

Drop the SunDrop

This photo of a SunDrop sign surfaced in Dew Labs.

Somebody had the idea to switch it to Drop the Drop.  He he he.

Dewlabs Member Blazing Trails in Dew Debate

Any good Mormons drink caffeinated sodas? I 'Dew,' says Dew devotee
ARTICLE ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED HERE by Peggy Fletcher Stack


Matthew Jorgensen gets more questions about caffeine than any other element of his Mormon faith. That's partly because outsiders see him turn down coffee while nursing a Mountain Dew.

The puzzled observers — and, apparently, many within the Utah-based faith as well — seem to think that the LDS Church forbids all caffeinated drinks.

In fact, the LDS Church's health code, known simply as the "Word of Wisdom," forbids the use of alcohol, tobacco and "hot drinks," which church authorities have defined as tea and coffee. Caffeine is not mentioned.

“I haven't really recognized a conflict between caffeinated sodas and my religion,” Jorgensen, a graduate researcher in the University of Utah's chemistry department, writes in an email.

The researcher is not alone.

Utah has such a strong Mountain Dew following, he says, that the Beehive State typically is one of three or four stops on the nationwide Dew Tour.

Recently, Jorgensen, a Salt Lake City native and practicing Mormon, was selected to be one of the head “consumer creators” of the Dew's newest flavor, White Out, featured in a couple of national commercials. Look for him at the end of the “Here's to the Loud” commercial.

And, yes, White Out is packed with the energy-pumping ingredient at the center of the great Word of Wisdom debate.


Peggy Fletcher Stack

Mountain Dew: It's Different on the Mountain

Wasatch Mountains, East of SLC

Dewlabs Member Gets Huge Prop From USA Today

Fellow Dewlabs member Ron Buckman got huge props in a USA today article that describes his involvement in the creation of white out. Ron and I have met and hung out a bit, and I must say that if anybody deserves recognition for White Out, it is him. Bellow is a quote from the article, originally found here, that talks about Ron and what's next for Dewlabs.

Ron Buckman considers himself an everyday person. The resident of Fraser, Mich., is 24, and he’s a sales guy at an Apple retail store at the local mall. But there’s one thing he loves even more than computers: Mountain Dew.

“As soon as I was allowed to drink pop, I was drinking Mountain Dew,” he says. He still drinks at least one a day, he says, and admits to occasionally using it as a mixer with alcohol. So it’s no surprise that he became an active fan on Mountain Dew’s Facebookpage.

But this might be a surprise: He not only helped select the flavor of a recent Mountain Dew drink, he also named it. This was all linked to Mountain Dew’s DEWmocracy campaign that was aimed at giving consumers a say in product creation. Last year, consumers picked one permanent flavor from three limited-time flavors.

Because of Buckman’s constant activity on Mountain Dew’s Facebook page, Buckman was invited by the brand to be a member of its Dew Labs team. That’s a group of Mountain Dew enthusiasts who get to chat amongst themselves online and help create Mountain Dew products. Some even become veritable product guinea pigs — sent test products in advance and asked for detailed comment.

One such citrus product that Buckman was sent last year — along with several other potential flavors that he was shipped in a FedEx box — he rechristened White Out. He loved the flavor so much that he lobbied other Mountain Dew enthusiasts to buy into it and vote for it over the two other flavors in the running. He even got actor Ashton Kutcher to help him promote the flavor via Twitter. His efforts won out. White Out’s been on shelves since October as a permanent flavor.

“Just having a product that I named come to fruition is awesome,” says Buckman, who was not paid for his efforts, although he did get to appear very briefly in a commercial for the new flavor.

He knows the score. Mountain Dew didn’t let him “inside” just for fun. “Companies are smart to let consumers interact and make decisions,” he says. “It’s also free advertising,” when consumers chat about it online, he adds.

Now, Mountain Dew executives want to take it to the next stage. They’re trying to figure out a way to let consumers be more physically hands on in product creation. In other words: actually mixing the next brew.

While Mountain Dew isn’t ready to let consumers inside its new-product labs, it is trying to figure out a way within the next few years to bring the labs to them, says Brett O’Brien, director of marketing for the brand. It’s looking into creating mobile labs, on wheels, that it would send to events, such as snowboarding competitions or summer festivals, where consumers could step in and mix ingredients. “That would be the next step in consumer interaction,” says Buckman. “They’d be building the products with us.”