Mtn Dew made 50 bottle designs, one for each state
Mtn Dew is taking local marketing to the extreme with a summer campaign that includes special packaging and ads for all 50 states.
The so-called “DEWnited States Collection” includes special bottle designs highlighting landmarks and icons associated with each state. The animated, playful designs include one for California that includes images of surfboards and redwood trees. New York’s shows the Brooklyn Bridge and the Illinois bottle includes an illustration of Chicago’s public art sculpture known as the Bean. The campaign also includes the release of a so-called Mtn Dew Liberty Brew, described in a press release as “a blend of 50 different signature flavors combined in this limited-edition Dew.”
The effort follows the trend of big national beverage brands seeking loyalty through making local connections. For instance, Budweiser a couple years ago sold beer in 11 different bottle designs that carried the names of the states where it has breweries. Absolut Vodka has long marketed “city series” bottles that have included Absolut Chicago and Absolut Brooklyn. Coke last year began selling specialty sodas including Coca-Cola Georgia Peach and Coca-Cola California Raspberry.
But Dew’s program seems more ambitious than most. It will be supported with 450 unique creative assets, including 50 separate 15-second digital videos targeting each state, as well as state-targeted in-store displays. Ad buys for the digital ads include a network of screens at gas station pumps. On TV, the PepsiCo-owned brand will run a single 15-second national spot.
Agencies on the campaign are BBDO New York, which handled the TV and digital creative; and Motive, which oversaw label design and static creative.
Bottles featuring all 50 states are available in every state. So someone in Florida, whose bottle includes sunglass-wearing surfing sharks, might be able to find an Alaskan bottle, which shows a flannel-wearing moose. Still, home state bottles have wider distribution.
Dew will incentivize purchases by giving away $100 to anyone who collects all 50 bottles and enters at a special website. That’s hardly a deal, considering the 20-ounce bottles retail for $1.89 on average, or $94.50 for 50. But that is not the point, says Erin Chin, the brand’s senior director of marketing.
“The $100 may not be a huge incentive to everyone,” she says. But “we think that the labels are collectibles… and people will want to collect them.” She adds: “It’s really about the gamification. We know our consumers love a challenge.”
The brand sourced ideas for the label images by tapping its 500-person consumer panel called the Green Room that it routinely runs ideas by. “We reached out to them and asked them what are the things they love most about their state, what are the most iconic things, both activities and monuments, that are really recognizable and ownable to the state,” Chin says.
Watch some of the state-targeted videos below.