Coke Embraces Mentos Fad for the First Time

In a marketing decision that always perplexed me, Coke spent the better part of this year distancing itself from a cultural wave involving its product… the geysers resulting from mixing Mentos mints and Diet Coke. The Mentos team jumped on it almost reflexively — running ads behind the famed www.Eepybird.com ads via Revver and initiating a Mentos Geyser contest on YouTube.

In a surprise move, Coke has stopped running… and has even embraced the Diet Coke and Mentos wave. Coke announced a new “Poetry in Motion” video contest behind a teaser video of EepyBird’s next experiment. The trailer for EepyBird’s “Extreme Diet Coke & Mentos Experiments II” video (due October 30) can be seen on Google Video, followed by a video ad that has an embedded hyperlink taking viewers to this Coke contest site. The contest is in prelaunch mode, but will invite individuals to submit videos that involve ordinary objects turned into something interesting.

Pictured here are the creators of EepyBird, Fritz Grobe and Stephen Voltz. The experiment II looks like it will be a visual feast far surpassing their original work. The duo– who made a small fortune via Revver — are now serving their videos at EepyBirdy Google Video with a Coke promo and hyperlink. Presumably they’ve cut a handsome deal with Coke (I’m guessing it approaches six figures since they made at least $50K on Revver from the first experiments).

I’m surprised that Grobe and Voltz aren’t more dynamic in this ad. I expected the improv team to show some fizz, but they’re surprisingly flat. Still- Kudos to EepyBird for extending its 15 minutes of fame, and to Coke for demonstrating adaptive marketing. The best kind.