Mountain Dew begins the new year with a mobile-first campaign
Set to appear in more than 20 countries around the world throughout 2017, the effort features a series of creative beginning with a piece titled ?Fade Away,? which debuted yesterday on social and traditional platforms yesterday. The commercial, and all other creative, was directed by famed music and commercial director Andreas Nilsson, and portrays ?athletes in action as they chase the euphoric feeling of doing,? familiar territory for Mountain Dew?s marketing team.
"The DEW Nation is into a wide array of activities from action sports to gaming," said Greg Lyons, senior vice president of marketing at Mountain Dew, North America. "Besides their love of Mountain Dew, what truly unites them is the idea of chasing a feeling.
"A feeling you only get from doing something exhilarating. Whether it's the thrill you get when you land a kickflip or the rush from completing a set on stage, this campaign is a celebration of the feeling of doing."
Do the Dew
The initial spot stars pro skateboarder Sean Malto, who is a part of Mountain Dew?s stable of sponsored athletes. The campaign continues the brand?s tradition of fostering relationships with athletes, especially action sports athletes.
Other athletes sponsored by Mountain Dew include Chicago Bulls star Jimmy Butler, the Oklahoma City Thunder?s Russell Westbrook and NASCAR?s Dale Earnhardt, Jr. The soda purveyor will be sure to include them and many more Mountain Dew sponsored athletes in subsequent iterations of the campaign.
The U.S. campaign is heavily optimized for social, including the ads which were designed to live within the mobile environment and will launched yesterday through a vertical video format on Sean Malto's Facebook page. The brand will use platforms like Twitter, Snapchat, Facebook Live, Facebook Video and Instagram Stories to visualize the feeling of doing, and engage the DEW Nation to share their own exhilarating experiences.
In addition to the digital and TV creative, Mountain Dew will also introduce a product redesign to its cans. The new Mountain Dew visual identity ? which spans across packaging, retail displays and brand creative ? features a refreshed neon green color palette and kinetic graphic elements.
"As the DEW Nation continues to evolve, so do we," Mr. Lyons said. "We are updating our packaging to not only reflect the energy and refreshing attitude of our brand, but of Mountain Dew drinkers everywhere."
Socially active
Mountain Dew, in keeping with its PepsiCo ilk, has been especially active on social media in the past year, especially on mobile-exclusive platforms. It offered viewers of its brand?s Instagram Story free swag to entice engagement when the feature first debuted in the summer of last year (see story).
And just a few months later, it leveraged Snapchat?s then newly-released world lenses feature to great hosannas, making it again one of the first brands to implement sterling creative on a freshly minted social feature (see story).
"Knowing that the majority of our millennial consumers see messages first in the palm of their hand, it's no longer about figuring out how creative can be optimized for mobile at the end of production, but now how it can be designed to thrive in mobile from the outset," Mr. Lyons said.