18 Nov 2014 The genius of PepsiCo’s gross-out marketing: Doritos-flavoured Mountain Dew
When word got out a fortnight ago that PepsiCo was testing Doritos-flavoured Mountain Dew, the Internet had a brief but intense freakout—online hysteria erupting as if from a shaken bottle of soda—providing Mountain Dew with a surge in online buzz.
In the week that followed more than 10,000 tweets mentioned the Doritos-flavoured soft drink specifically, according to analytics firm Topsy.
“Dewitos,” as the product is called, “has been sitting in the vault for years, and we wanted to give students a chance to try it as part of a fun sampling program on college campuses,” according to a Mountain Dew spokesman. “We knew students would be intrigued but never imagined it would take on a life of its own the way it has.”
In contrast with some of their competitors, PepsiCo brands have had no reservations about tweaking signature flavours, often to gross effect.
The company’s Lay’s division recently introduced cappuccino-flavoured potato chips as part of its “Do Us A Flavor” campaign, which invited consumers to submit and vote on new chip flavours. The cappuccino chips may have tasted “like they fell into a K-Cup”, but the bizarre flavour generated more than 25,000 mentions on outlets such as Facebook and Twitter, according to Infegy, a company that analyzes social media.
Competing flavour wasabi ginger generated far less chatter until it was announced as the competition winner last month, suggesting that something disgusting captures the imagination in a way that something merely weird or novel does not.
This is the point of over-the-top food or flavours – they are promotions tailor-made for online virality. Pepsi’s genius is that it managed to generate all of its Dewitos buzz with a mere giveaway.
The Doritos flavour is being tested at colleges and universities with a few other new versions of Mountain Dew: habanero mango, rainbow sherbet, and lemonade with ginger.
A Mountain Dew spokesman says making a Doritos-flavoured soda is not a PR stunt: “We are always testing out new flavours of Mountain Dew, and giving our fans a voice in helping decide on the next new product has always been important to us.”
Maybe so, but it’s hard to imagine Pepsi has any serious plans to market the so-called Dewito….