Mountain Dew:

Selecting New Creative

Q1 Comment on the Creative Brief provided to BBDO. Analyze it in
light of consumer behavior trends, brand and campaign history.
The objective was to expand the appeal of Mountain Dew to new users while reinforcing its current
users. They wanted to position it as a great tasting CSD that exhilarates like no other because of its
energizing thirst quenching and unique citrus flavor. So the communication strategy symbolized that
drinking mountain dew is an exhilarating experience. The target audiences were male teens with 18
years old as epicenter. They wanted to insure appeal amongst current users (20-39 years old) and
also drive a universal appeal.
Brand History:
Huge success in the NASCAR belt
Initial product campaigns connected with the country crowd with repeated references to the
brand name(Mountains and dew in ads)
Moved to No#3 in the CSD market
Later campaigns revolved around stunts suggesting
excitement and energy

Past Campaigns:
Yahoo! Mountain Dew! – 1960’s
Linking with its backwoods heritage
Hello Sunshine – 1970’s
Take the brand into suburbs and cities
Country Cool – 1980’s
Combine the athletic endeavors with active
rural lifestyle
Get Vertical -1990’s
No country influence, just excitement and energy
Do the DEW-end 1990’s
Linkage to extreme sports

Cultural trends:
Music evolved from Rap to Alternative to Techno by the end of 1990’s
Alternative Sports took off big time and gained popularity among teens
Behavior of teens became increasingly rebellious and making independent choices (reduced
influence by sales messages)

Considering the above mentioned factors and the Psychographic imagery in Exhibit 6A, Mountain
Dew is associated with the differentiating characters of being outgoing and courageous. At the same
time the product imagery was that of a sweet drink available at sporting events. The new creative is
in line with the past campaigns which focused on excitement and exhilaration but has moved on
from the rural appeal to more definite shift of attention on the urban audience. The creative brief
continues to keep its product, emotional and personality benefits intact. All the points of
differentiation for the brand have been highlighted.
Q2 What is Moffitt’s problem? What's your recommendation?
Moffitt and his senior management were concerned about the following dilemmas:
Keep consistency with the old ads and build on them to forward the brand name
Break away from the overexposed theme of extreme sports
Respond to growing threat of non CSD in the market
Choosing the ad campaign in line with the above objectives
Recommendation:

The campaign should continue with ads that show the brand values promoted in the previous
ads which have helped build a brand image for the product with increased focus on the
differentiate factors.
As Mountain Dew has always been associated with Extreme sports, parting with it
completely might have a backlash and create confusion in the minds if the consumers. Also it
would not be in coherence to the brand image that has been associated with Mountain Dew
over the years.
The ad campaign should keep in mind the above points and not dilute the brand attributes.

Q3 What criteria would you use to evaluate the creative alternatives?

Evaluate each of the alternatives using the criteria suggested?

Criteria of Evaluation: (The Model Used is from the Text Book)

Consistency with Brand’s Marketing and advertising objective
Consistency with creative strategy and objective
Appropriate approach for target audience
Clear and convincing message
Clear portrayal of message
Appropriate for media environment
Truthful and Tasteful
Impactful

Evaluation

Labour of Cheeta Dew or Mock

Criteria /Ads Options Showstopper
Love h Die Opera
Consistency with Brand’s Marketing
X    
and advertising objective
Consistency with creative strategy
Maybe   
and objective
Appropriate approach for target
Maybe    
audience
Clear and convincing message     
Clear portrayal of message Maybe    Maybe
Appropriate for media environment X    
Truthful and Tasteful X    
Impactful X    Maybe

Recommendations:
From the above evaluation, we feel that the Options of Cheetah, Dew or Die and Mock Opera would
be the most suitable options for the campaign as they meet with all the required criteria.
The Cheetah ad has the symbolism of adventure, hunting and excitement which are in line with the
brand identity and also promote product & emotional benefits. It is catchy and can be seen as
adventurous without being related to extreme sports.
The Dew or Die ad has ingrained the product character of outgoing and adventure along with
keeping the idea of a fun cool drink. Also shows the Dew Dude performing stunts in the ad which
forwards the existing campaign line followed by Mountain Dew.
The Mock Opera ad, like some previous successful ads uses the combination of an old song with
modifies lyrics to suit the campaign along with the Dew Dudes again shown performing stunts. This
could be a hit again as it has been in the past.

The reason for reject the other two ads was because the Love of Labour ad could be interpreted as
offensive in many cultures and the Showstopper ad did not portray the Dew Dudes performing any
stunts.