The Campaign

Inspired by three new electric-themed flavours, Live Wire, Pitch Black and Electro Shock, we decided to mix electricity with skating and take extreme sports to another level. Our idea was to build a fully functioning pinball machine you can ride. Open to the public to skate, the 600 square metre machine had it all; a 13 metre high illuminated backboard, bumpers, flippers and even a plunger to launch players in. And it was wired with hundreds of sensors, sounds and lights to score your run just like pinball. But it wasn’t just a stunt, it was just one part of an integrated campaign that our target market could experience, participate in, watch, talk about with friends, blog about, ‘like’ and share. A campaign that would make Mountain Dew famous amongst New Zealand teens.

Success of the Campaign

With only 10% of our budget spent on Media we used social currency to spread the word. The Results: • Featured on CNN World Report and over 100 news stations across the world. • Featured on thousands of websites and blogs. • Tony Hawk tweeted about it. (2.5 million followers.) • 82.1% growth in sales. (More than 4x our target.) • Became fastest growing CSD in New Zealand. • Became No.1 fruit CSD in Convenience and Oils for the first time in history.

Describe how the campaign/entry was launched and executed across each channel in the order of implementation.

We began by enlisting the help of two skaters and a BMX rider and set to work building the pinball machine in a warehouse in West Auckland. The initial phase of the campaign launched with an online videoblog documenting the build, as well as a short TV series on channel Four. Fans could follow the build from start to finish, whilst our existing MD fanbase were kept constantly updated through facebook. Once the build was complete, the second phase of the campaign launched the park with an invitational skate competition for 30 of NZ’s best skaters. And afterwards it remained open for the public to skate. A TVC introduced the new flavours and promoted the park via a website. Once online you could explore the machine, follow a videoblog of the build, watch a live feed and download 360˚ photos of yourself at the park.