Category Archives: Mentos

YouTube Rival Has Killer App (Advertising Age)

nin.jpgAdvertising Age writer Beth Snyder Bulik called Revver.com a TouTube rival with an model that’s a “kill app.” She describes the $30K profit Steven Voltz and Fritz Grobe made through their infamous “Extreme Diet Coke and Mentos Experiment.”

Revver advertisers include Microsoft, Universal Pictures, Warner Bros., and American Apparel. Larger content creators are contributing to Revver including ZeFrank and Ask a Ninja. The site’s in beta and launches officially in September.

Side note: Mentos bought out the entire inventory of ad space on the popular video. The Coke folks? They sent Voltz and Grobe one t-shirt and a diet Coke cap. Common, Coke. No wonder people are spoofing your approach to online advertising! These guys give you arguably millions in viral advertising and the best you can do is a t-shirt and cap? You guys need a bright, young, energetic online advertising guru to come remind Coke it’s not 1995 anymore.

The Mad Search for the Most Popular Videos

I’ve noticed that my most popular posts are not my deepest thoughts about the future of online video, or about how amateurs can make money. Nope, if I want blogger popularity I simply write about what video is hot that week.

popular.jpgIndulge me, dear readers, in an experiment. In this post I will write about the hotest videos. I’ll report back how many views this post gets. Did you know that Emmalina is the most popular YouTube uploader? BritBot& Simula Special gets more comments than most. The Diet Coke and Mentos fad, unfortunately, is not over. Today I’ll get at least 4 e-mails asking me if I’ve seen the Comcast guy sleeping. Don’t ask me why, but computer animation with musical scores are all the rage. Check out Naruto AMV- Hinata’s Perfect World. It’s one of the top rated videos on YouTube.

Today thanks to Google sponsors you can watch Felix the Cat for free (which is nice, because I’ve been wanting to watch him for a while, but didn’t want the guilt of searching for an illegal posting of him… that was sarcasm on both fronts). Paris Hilton is the number one video on Google Video. That name still gets searches, doesn’t it? Or is she yesterday?

Learning how to fold a perfect shirt seems to be hot on MetaCafe. And here’s one of the shortest most viral clips: Hiding the beer gut. And Dancing Around the World is one video that deserves the viral status it’s getting. Most people will stop watching this video of an Asian woman performing what appears to be an illicit act but is actually an ad.

Okay- I’m fried. It ‘aint easy finding the good stuff.

Mentos and Diet Coke… the New Sushi

sush.jpgI once spent a summer in NYC and I couldn't believe I had access to sushi 24/7. Each day I'd have sushi for dinner and lunch, and this went on for about 2 weeks. Then suddenly one day during lunch, I spit out my sushi into a garbage can. I couldn't eat it again for months.

This is what's suddenly happened to me with the Coke, Diet Pepsi and Mentos videos. I can't look at another one.

I hereby proclaim this Mentos and Soda fad officially over!

Okay, maybe just one more. The exploding girl. But then I'm really done.

Get Rick Quick? Amazing Case Study on Viral Video Impact (Diet Coke and Mentos)

1150173200mentos.jpgWho would have thought that a few hundred dollars worth of Diet Coke and Mentos could turn into $30,000? According to this Wall Street Journal article, viral videos — which featuring explosive shots of Mentos mixed with Diet Coke — http://www.eepybird.com/ have generated several million of views. This is not uncommon for YouTube, but it's a record for Revver.com, a video-serving company that splits ad revenue 50/50 with its creators.

The result?

  • In the first weeks, the creators made $15,000 of ad revenue from their videos, which included an elaborate display of 101 two-liter bottles of Diet Coke and 523 Mentos to create what WSJ called a "dancing fountain like the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas." (Click here for video). Revver made $15,000 as well, and this data is already weeks old. EepyBird is not posting its videos on YouTube or other sites, and has requested visitors not to either.mentos.jpg
  • Mentos is made by a unit of Italian confectioner Perfetti Van Melle. "We are tickled pink by it," says Pete Healy, vice president of marketing for the company's U.S. division. The company spends less than $20 million on U.S. advertising annually. He estimates the value of online buzz to be "over $10 million." He's talking about EepyBird, as well as the hundreds of other videos posted elsewhere.coke1.jpg
  • Mentos is considering a promotional campaign with the two creators of the viral videos. Diet Coke, however, is less interested. spokeswoman Susan McDermott. "We would hope people want to drink [Diet Coke] more than try experiments with it." McDermott says that the "craziness with Mentos … doesn't fit with the brand personality" of Diet Coke. (kinda reminds you of when the M&M guy passed on having his candy associated with an alien, and then Resees Pieces ate M&M's lunch by appearing on E.T.).  Would Sergio have argued about brand personality? Would Sergio Zyman have turned that down?
  • EepyBird's creators are Fritz Grobe, a 37-year-old professional juggler, and Stephen Voltz, 48-year-old lawyer, from Buckfield, Me. They belong to a local theater company (Oddfellow theater) and have had calls from several late-night talk shows, including CBS's "Late Show with David Letterman."

Typically it's hard to make a mint on Revver (which has limited traffic), but impossible to make money on YouTube (which doesn't share ad revenue with content creators). So how do I move from my GoogleHead, Crackberry and Burger King Outsources videos (which are somewhat popular but nothing like Eeepy) into something with wicked viral appeal?

I wonder if I lit my fart on fire with a Bic if I could get the lighter-maker to do a promotion with me. Ya think?