#Puppymonkeybaby
Mountain Dew’s
Kickstart commercial that aired during the Super Bowl sparked a lot of
attention on social media. The commercial shows a fictional character called ”Puppymonkeybaby”
interacting with a group of guys repeating the words “puppy monkey baby” over
and over while encouraging them to consume Kickstart. It can be found here.
Mountain Dew
tweeted “Mtn Dew #Kickstart is three awesome things combined: Dew. Juice.
Caffeine. Create your own trifecta of awesome now (Twitter.com). They combined
three things to make Kickstart, so they combined three things to create Puppymonkeybaby,
the star of the commercial.
Kerpin says “in
order to win your customers mindshare now, your marketing cant be solely about
your brand, or products, or features and benefits anymore. More than anything,
you have to get your customers talking” (Kerpin, 2015 pg. 46).
Mountain Dew seemed to take this
concept pretty literally. The commercial itself didn’t focus much on the
product, more so on a concept that combines three things that people love
seeing in a Super Bowl commercial: puppies, monkeys and babies.
Mountain Dew took
to Twitter and Facebook immediately with the hashtag “#Puppymonkeybaby” and
interacted with consumers throughout the entire Super Bowl. Mountain Dew is
continuing to interact with consumers on social media and seems to be
personally replying to comments and tweets. They seem to be prolonging the
campaign by responding to comments asking consumers to “send us a DM for a
surprise” (Facebook.com). Since they
don’t tell us what the surprise is, one may be inclined to direct message them
to find out. They have also recreated the Puppymonkey doing different things
and have even made a video showing the typical reaction to the weekend being over, making
Puppymonkeybaby more than a character in a Super Bowl commercial.
It seems like they
are trying to keep Puppymonkeybaby alive for as long as possible, and while
some people might like that, others can’t stand it. An article on the
Washington Post by Maura Judkis says that while Mountain Dew is not the first
company to “riff on the fact that the best Super Bowl commercials contain
either a puppy, a monkey or a baby,” they are the first to put them to create
the “horrifying monster called Puppymonkeybaby” (Judkis, 2016). Kerpin says
“will the recipients of this message truly find it of value, or will they find
it annoying and disruptive?” (Kerpin, 2015 pg. 41). This commercial seemed to
get split reviews- those who like it really like it and those who don’t, hate
it.
References
Judkis, M. (2016, February 7).
Mountain Dew’s puppymonkeybaby Super Bowl commercial will haunt your dreams.
Retrieved February 08, 2016, from
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2016/02/07/mountain-dews-puppymonkeybaby-super-bowl-commercial-will-haunt-your-dreams/
Kerpen,
D. (2015). Likeable social media (2nd ed.). New York : McGraw Hill Education
Super Bowl Commercials. (2016). #Hashtags Matter- Top Social Media Campaigns of SB 2015.
Retrieved
from http://www.superbowlcommercials2016.org/best-commercials/best-social-campaigns-super-bowl-2015/
Danielle,
ReplyDeleteI’m so glad someone selected this campaign for their blog post this week! How incredibly disturbing yet memorable!
You are very right when you pointed out how literal Mountain Dew took Kerpen’s notion of “you have to get your customers talking” (Kerpen, 2015, pg. 46). This sure got people talking. I think it’s very smart of Mountain Dew to keep the conversations going with consumers. They got their attention, now they are working to keep it by responding to comments and creating the follow up GIF. They even posted on their Facebook page #puppymonkeybaby swag is now available (Mountain Dew, 2016)!
“Companies that can foster communication, not only between organization and consumer but also between consumer and consumer, will reap the greatest benefits of the most connected world we’ve ever had” (Kerpen, 2015, pg.68). Consumers that are tweeting, posting, and commenting about this mythical creature are beginning to have conversations amongst themselves. With Mountain Dew jumping in and also commenting they are creating their own brand community.
I blogged about the #EsuranceSweepstakes and now that it’s over, I was curious how they would leverage and retain this boost off a successful campaign. Do you think Mountain Dew will continue to build from this #puppymonkeybaby or will it start to get old? Will they be able to measure the impact to Kickstart drink sales (perhaps the DM is a tool to measure a response rate)? Do you overall consider this campaign successful or a flop?
~Nicole
References
Kerpen, D. (2015). Likeable social media (2nd ed.). New York: McGraw Hill Education
Mountain Dew (2016). Mountain Dew [Facebook Newsfeed]. Retrieved from https://www.facebook.com/mountaindew/?fref=ts
Hi Nicole,
ReplyDeleteI absolutely think that Puppymonkeybaby will die off in the near future. I think it was something weird and disturbing enough to get people talking for the short term, but I don’t think the concept has enough substance to be prolonged throughout the year. I could potentially see them piggybacking off of this campaign for next year’s Super Bowl, but if they tried to force Puppymonkeybaby into more of their advertising and marketing I personally feel as though people will get over it quickly. It was definitely the most talked about commercial at my job which encouraged me to look up the YouTube video Monday morning prior to reading this week’s prompt! So in terms of creating a short term buzz about the brand, I think it was successful. But it definitely didn’t drive me to want to try Kickstart.
In terms of overall success- I think people will forever associate Puppymonkeybaby with Mountain Dew as a brand. That’s about as far as I go with that. What about you? Do you consider this to be a successful campaign?
Danielle
Hey Danielle,
DeleteI completely agree. I think this will die off and also wouldn’t be surprised if next year for the Super Bowl they bring this creature back. Overall, I would consider this ad campaign a success if their goal was to gain awareness and start a dialogue. It really got people talking, and equally important, Mountain Dew was an active participant in the conversation. David Scott points out that “social media is about engagement” (Scott, 2015, pg. 280). Through this campaign Mountain Dew effectively drove consumers to a social media platform and effectively connected with them.
I started wondering if perhaps one of their competitors might utilize the slight distaste some people have from the Puppymonkeybaby to create some sort of parity ad campaign poking fun at Mountain Dew. I will unquestionably be watching to see how this continues to evolve out of sheer curiosity.
~Nicole
References
Scott, David M. (2015). The New Rules of Marketing & PR. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Hi Danielle,
ReplyDeleteWell one thing is forsure- Moutain Dew certainly got people talking about# #PuppyMonkeyBaby. Whether its positive or negative comments of people talking about the annoying campaign. People are also having fun with it and one radio station posted a remix to it: http://923amp.cbslocal.com/2016/02/11/puppy-monkey-baby-gets-a-remix/
Do you think the campaign was overall successful? It's interesting to see the mix reviews but do you think all of this will help Mountain Dew consumers with brand recognition?
Hi Danielle,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your post. I must confess I had a hard time trying to understand not only the campaign, including the character and the ad itself, but also trying to understand how some ideas can reach a point in which creative can be also considered pointless. During all these weeks reading these interesting books, I could recall what Kerpen (2015) explains about a popular saying in traditional advertising: “Fifty percent of my advertising works. I just don’t know which 50 percent.” (Loc. 611-612). I keep thinking what is the fifty percent this campaign worked for such big investment in money.
Beyond the cultural differences (I am not familiar with the cultural tradition of Super Bowl), this campaign rests solely in its intention to generate noise, to create awareness with a commercial that calls to ridicule conventional paradigms in advertising, such as the use of puppies, monkeys and babies in traditional advertising commercials. The (lack of) point is: What is the product?, What are the benefits of Kickstarter, the (apparent) product Mountain Dew was trying to introduce and promote? Kerpen (2015) explains the importance of generating conversation through social media, with a specific purpose: “defining and finding the narrowly targeted, correct audience and then beginning to engage them in a conversation, so that when they are ready to buy, you’re the obvious, logical choice.” (Loc. 619-620). If we agree with this statement, we could understand that the narrowly targeted audience (those who enjoyed the character) and they start engaging in a conversation, what would be the “bridge” to generate a call to action and buy Kickstarter? There are some missing dots in trying to connect the most expensive and exclusive advertising campaign and the obvious ROI needed to justify it.
Finally, the only positive side I could find to the campaign (beyond the natural interest because of the controversy the character surely generated) is that Mountain Dew was able to put in action what Kerpen (2015) recommended to drive people into social media: “stop thinking like a marketer and start thinking like your consumer.” (Loc. 702-703). Mountain Dew definitely created a good moment to address an issue with traditional marketing and advertising, appealing to humor and controversy.
Thanks for your post. Have a great weekend!
Carlos
References:
Kerpen, D. (2015). Likeable social media, revised and expanded: How to delight your customers, create an irresistible brand, and be amazing on facebook, twitter, linkedin. Kindle version. Retrieved from amazon.com