• by Danielle Oster , March 7, 2024

It’s the story of the can who fell to earth.

Monster Energy wanted to make a big splash around the launch of its Ultra Fantasy Ruby Red zero-sugar flavor, so the brand brought a giant version of the can to life with an AR eventcombining digital, 2D and 3D art, at The Brig -- a lively nightclub in the Venice section of Los Angeles.

Monster Energy senior communications manager Ross McDonaugh explained that while there’s overlap between the two, Monster Ultra (its line of zero-sugar flavors) has a different audience than the “OG” brand, characterizing the former as appealing to a “more niche audience” of consumers in the art and fashion communities, while the original brand skews toward a more traditional energy drink audience seeking fuel for outdoor adventures.

With that artist community a focus, the brand wanted to employ a unique can design, and then bring it to life with the event, for which it turned to artist and creative designer Pinky Taylor, a longtime Monster collaborator.

It wasn't like ‘Let’s find an artist to make us a can,” McDonaugh told Marketing Daily. “It was like, ‘Let’s get Pinky to create a can.

“If you go to Monster HQ, his art is all over the walls, he's been around for so long so he was the obvious choice,” he explained, adding of the resulting can art for the new flavor,

"Because the can itself is a canvas, we thought we could blow this up and make the art the center of the show, and not just a new flavor,” McDonaugh said.

“It just sort of steamrolled from there,” he added, with brand deciding to play up the aspect of the new flavor “arriving” and collaborating with AR/T House, they arrived at the idea of having it appear to come out of the sky and crash to the ground.

 “It was a cool spectacle, perfect to draw people in from the crowd.”

The degree to which AR becomes a consistent part of Monster’s marketing mix moving forward remains to be seen. “It’s definitely something we’d consider in the future. The possibilities are endless,” McDonaugh said.

In the meantime, he said that Monster Ultra had plenty of other upcoming marketing initiatives promoting the new flavor, including an upcoming collaboration with contemporary culture and lifestyle brand Hypebeast later this year.