Mountain Dew inspires consumers to look beyond fear

The flavoured, carbonated drink threw different challenges to its consumers in a repeat edition of its 2007 award-winning campaign

Mountain Dew has done it again, inspiring consumers to look beyond their fear and take up challenges that the brand threw at them. PepsiCo’s drink came out with another edition of its 2007 award-winning below-the-line (BTL) campaign, called ‘Darr ke aage jeet hai’. The campaign had won in two categories at the PMAA 2007 (Promotional Marketing Awards of Asia).

Like in the last edition, Jagran Solutions is the agency which worked on the campaign. The action took place in 39 cities of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

Mountain Dew inspires consumers to look beyond fear

Alpana Titus, executive vice-president, flavours, PepsiCo, says, “These cities are large potential CSD (carbonated soft drinks) markets for us. Moreover, Uttar Pradesh is also a strong summer seasonality market, thus, a very strategic one for Mountain Dew. Also, the campaign was not just limited to that select period when the execution happened; we have also invested a lot in impact marketing, such as like putting up signage across places to increase permanent visibility. The idea was not just to touch a city like Lucknow, but to go deeper into the state and create interest.”

The campaign's objective was four-fold – increase brand awareness through an interactive sampling exercise; increase brand salience; create brand excitement and interact with the target group and make them participate in the interactive and innovative ‘DARE’ activities, which give them an experience of the brand.

Ambika Sharma, national head of Jagran Solutions says, “Last time we did the campaign, it was more sales-centric, as the product wasn’t available at a few places. However, since the TG, which is 18-28-year old, was already well aware of the brand, the focus this time was more on driving sampling.”

The initiative involved modified versions of games and engagement activities, such as knife aiming wall, dark box, walking on broken glass and get the dew. However, the catch was that none of the activities involved any dare. For instance, in the knife aiming wall, the participants had to stand blindfolded against the canter wall, with the presenter taking aim with a knife. However, the participant didn’t know that the presenter wasn’t throwing the knives at them, but putting them inside the wall gently.

Likewise, walking on broken glass had participants walking on Teflon glass. However, to keep the excitement alive, the participants were not told of the modified aspect of the games.

Asked whether the very proposition of the brand wasn’t diluted with such modifications, Sharma says, “The idea remains to dare. As most of the people in these markets haven't tried this kind of stuff before, though getting exposed to it through media, the activity generated great buzz. The games were conceptualised with the thought that these would scare any regular person.”

These canters were parked at high-footfall locations to conduct interactive games and canter challenge activities. The winners were given Mountain Dew branded goodies.

As for the numbers, over 60,000 people were contacted and informed about the brand through direct interaction. Titus says that Mountain Dew is a brand that grows on the continuous engagement model, hinged on both above-the-line (ATL) as well as BTL. “The initiative was about making the consumers accept the brand and become loyalists and the campaign achieved that very well.”

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