• by Karlene Lukovitz  @KLmarketdaily, August 15, 2016

PepsiCo’s Mountain Dew brand has significantly expanded its popular “outdoors” promotion this year.

Like five previous annual campaigns designed to appeal to the hunting and active outdoor sports proclivities of its male audience, this year’s features limited-time cans and bottles sporting a camouflage design, and an associated sweepstakes. 

But this time, the brand is supporting the sweeps and the packaging, done in partnership with Lost Camo, with a full-blown, integrated marketing campaign. 

The national retail sweeps, which is being featured on the camo packaging for the first time, offers a grand prize of a trip for two to Montana’s The Ranch at Rock Creek, plus 10,000 smaller, instant-win prizes. It can be entered by texting or through a contest page on the brand’s site. 

The campaign, dubbed “Answer the Call of the Wild,” includes an eight-week grassroots marketing tour, starting this month, across West Virginia, Tennessee, Ohio and Colorado. 

Each event has been tailored to the locale, and will feature local musicians, “influential outdoorsmen” and Dew “All Stars,” according to the brand. All events will promote the sweeps and camo packages, as well as a “Lost Cabin” backwoods party that is the campaign’s culmination. 

The one-day Lost Cabin party, featuring a “backwoods feast” and live music, will take place in early October. 

Mtn Dew will tease fans and sweeps entrants about the event’s location throughout the campaign, with activities including invites, social seeding and coordinate clues.

The campaign will be supported through all of Dew’s social channels, including Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram. Efforts will include geo-targeted posts. 

The brand will also release digital content leading up to NASCAR’s Talladega race in October.

“We want to be part of our consumers’ lives — the Dew Nation — and that means appealing to their interests through packaging, experiences and products that not only make a statement about who they are, but give them the charge to live out experiences in the outdoors,” says Ryan Collis, senior director, marketing, for the brand. “The new camo limited edition packaging and campaign give the Dew Nation that badge value and access to experiences that go beyond the norm.”