Mountain Dew Finds Art of Engagement

Pepsi continues to use its Mountain Dew brand as the ultimate consumer engagement tool, extending its Green Label Art project to include skateboarder Paul Rodriguez and skateboarder/artist Don Pendleton, who met for the first time in the video above. 

Pepsi introduced limited-edition artwork for its bottles and cans in 2007, when it invited contemporary artists to create designs for its packaging. Hudson Sullivan, brand manager at Mountain Dew, tells Marketing Daily, "We found consumers loved it, loved the nature of the program, and loved the art."

As an extension of this initiative, Pepsi is holding a contest for skate shops across the United States to compete to have their designs featured on limited-edition cans under the Green Label Art program.

With 35 shops participating, consumers can vote for their favorite can design for Mountain Dew to distribute nationally, and also get the chance to tickets to catch the 2010 Dew Tour's Skate Open.

It's yet another effort to engage young consumers in helping to define the direction of the Mountain Dew brand. Pepsi's DEWmocracy initiative allowed consumers to create the flavor Mountain Dew Voltage via an interactive video game, and the follow-up DEWmocracy 2 increased Mountain Dews Facebook friends from 150,000 to more than 860,000.

"There's definitely a consistency between the DEWmocracy and Green Label efforts — it's definitely about engage consumers, bringing them in and making them part of the process," says Sullivan. "But Green Label is really less about driving volume and more about driving cultural relevance."

With Mountain Dew, Pepsi has figured out how to create and maintain excitement about a brand — by making brand enthusiasts feel that they are really a part of the product development process.