Anyway, what better way to ease myself back in, than with a story all about one of my favourite websites… Facebook!
Have you ever wondered what Facebook tastes like? Well wonder no longer! Those lovely, ethically-questionable, people at coca-cola have only gone and created a 'Facebook' flavour Vitaminwater (called ‘Connect.’) Now I’m not a fan of Vitaminwater, and have blogged about it before but it seems that the die-hard fans have had their say.
In September, Vitaminwater launched a Facebook application on the site to crowd-source ideas for their next flavour. It monitored online buzz about different flavours on the market, and then users could vote for their favourite via the ‘flavor creator tab’ on the million-strong Facebook fanpage. Then came the fun part; users could design & write the blurb for the bottle’s label, which was then voted on by celebrity judges including spokesman/shareholder 50 cent himself. The winning designer got a cash prize, and the chance to see their design on this new flavour bottle instores. All of this activity was promoted via a Youtube ad by NBA’s Steve Nash, showing how integration amongst social networking sites can really work at supporting your brand in any marketing activites.
Crowd sourcing really isn’t a new thing in adland, with some brands even encouraging fans to make their entire ads for them for some form of cash reward/prestige. Voting for your favourite flavour of something isn’t that new either (remember Gary Linekar’s promotion of the ‘tasty Walkers’ squirrell crisps last year?) But Vitaminwater have combined the two, in an official, brand-supported way, via the magical medium of Facebook (with Youtube support,) encouraging both creativity and voting-power amongst fans, and I think it’s worked.
I would have maybe upped the prize a little for the winner though and jumped on the opportunity for some more brand PR. The winner could have been invited to some kind of launch party, meeting the celebrity backers of the brand... fiddy could have even got a wee rap on the go. By dreaming up this new flavour online, with a niche group of tech-savvy energy drink fans, Vitaminwater will still need to put the effort in to market it offline, to ensure the whole concept and excitement translates properly.
So as the US Facebook-geeks eagerly await these branded bottles entering the market in spring, the rest of us will have to wait and see if the fad comes over the pond to reach us. I, personally, will not be squirming with anticipation… the idea of a drink described as ‘a tasty black cherry-lime flavour made with caffeine and 8 key nutrients’ is pretty minging. Give me a bottle of tooth-rotting, nuclear Irn Bru anyday!
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