Sunkist Soda Reveals Big Plans for Spring Break 2011
Sunkist Soda has plans to become official soft drink of spring break 2011 with celebrity ad campaign, MTV beach concert series, a dance soundtrack, and merchandising co-ops.
Online, October 13, 2010 (Newswire.com) - [Los Angeles, California] With the advertising dollar weakening in the instability of the economy, advertising agencies are forced to find innovative ways of capturing brand value and awareness for their clients. The same is true for Y&R ad agency, brand managers of Sunkist Soda. Parent company Dr. Pepper Snapple Group brought Y&R on in 2009 to manage Sunkist while still retaining Deutsch Inc. as lead creative directors for the Dr. Pepper brand itself.
Particularly, the San Francisco team at Y&R are known for commercializing grass root style strategies and marketing them in the marketplace. Y&R is expected to create an epic spring break campaign with Sunkist as a vocal point, However, it is reported that Ogilvy Mather will manage the execution, distribution, and publicity of the campaign assets once created.
Non-competing brands Billabong and Garnier Fructis will share in this campaign; splitting advertising and production cost of an estimated $9.2 million. Specifically, campaign features will include a spring break concert series & original programming on MTV & MTVU, in-store shopping incentives at simon mall properties nationwide, a dance soundtrack, and spring break travel & lodging assistance for students. Additional viral assets of the campaign include spring break branded apps, cell phone, laptops, kindle, and ipad covers, and free streaming viral-interactive capabilities.
Casting, talent direction, and some print & music portions of the campaign are under the direction of New York based firm Lewis Agency LLC. Travis McCoy, Lea Michelle, Michael "The Situation" Sorrentino, Audrina Patridge, and Katie Perry are among fifteen listed celebrities to be featured in the campaign as well as up & coming entertainers.
Consumers will begin to see components of the campaign in the marketplace by February 2011 according to media buys confirmed in more than 40 markets and on multiple platforms.
Advertising veteran Rich Warden commented on the campaign: "Television and radio advertising is expensive but is still necessary to retain a premium in brand value, so in a move to help advertisers get the most out of their ad dollars we are trying alternatives that turn information and education about brands into info-tainment and splitting cost with other brands that compliment your own is necessary. "We're trying to steer away from high-cost items to do things that are going to have a more immediate and higher return on investment with a lower initial investment cost. You are going to see this more often."
A press launch for the campaign is scheduled to take place in Los Angeles in early January 2011.