PepsiCo's Mountain Dew Seeks A Few New Men

green Label Art-Mountain DewMountain Dew is looking for new ways to extend its reach among thirsty young men, and this week will begin rolling out its latest experiment: Six limited-edition bottles, designed by emerging artists.

The interactive marketing effort, by New York-based Seed Gives Life, builds on the Green Label Art effort the brand introduced last year. After receiving thousands of submissions, 12 designs were selected, with the first six introduced in January, and the remainder this week.

Artists chosen for this round include Billy the Artist, Mark Smith, Mike Sutfin, PJ Richardson, Stephan "Maze" Georges and Troy Denning. In addition to the Green Label Art Web site, the brand is also producing viral videos promoting each individual artist, and hosting events that bring together art and musical performances.

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The campaign was a natural outgrowth for PepsiCo's Mountain Dew, says Michael Ventura, Seed's creative director. "The brand has already done well in the action spot space, and is seen as an extreme sport and action brand. So when we started trying to decide, 'Where can we go next?,' the underground art scene seemed right."

While everyone knows that young men aren't watching just mainstream media, "interactive isn't as straightforward as many marketers think," he says.

So a campaign like Green Label Art doesn't just involve microsites, online design widgets, social networking, and user-generated entries--"it involves all kinds of word-of-mouth, from blogs to things that exist outside the browser, like Twitter.

"But they all have to work together and maintain authenticity for the campaign because the minute people smell insincerity, it all starts to crumble. The idea is that Mountain Dew is willing to play where people live--and that this is a two-way campaign, not just a brand talking at people, but people talking back."

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