Things sure have changed a lot in the past 12 years. I can remember like it was yesterday standing at a pay phone near the field where I played little league baseball. I proudly dropped my quarter into the slot and dialed the 800 number I had written down on a little piece of crumpled up paper. I pressed the number corresponded to the color blue and the rest was history. It would soon be revealed that I had voted with the majority of Americans, 54 percent to be exact, in deciding the new M&M color. With over 10 million votes cast, blue won in a landslide over pink, purple or no change. Being just a kid, I couldn’t help but think that I had a huge impact on making the new M&M blue. That’s the brilliance of a successfully executed marketing campaign.

This is all somewhat ironic now, first and foremost because M&M’s don’t differ in taste depending on color, but also because of the way in which I interacted with the campaign. A recent L.A. Times report revealed that AT&T plans to phase out its pay phone business by the end of ’08. Additionally, a kid today would probably never fathom having to write down an 800 number on a piece of paper, but instead would be asked to text a quick code to vote for something or log onto a website. This all came to me when a current television commercial asked consumers to help create the next Mountain Dew. The “Dewmocracy” campaign asks consumers to join the movement, play games, and take a journey with fellow consumers as they develop teams eventually leading to a new flavor, color, name, logo, label, and tagline for the next Mountain Dew. This innovative campaign is a far cry from pressing 1 for blue. Only time will tell if it will be a success.

Dewmocracy Site

Do you think the Mountain Dew campaign will take off? Are there any recent interactive marketing campaigns that you’ve been impressed with?

Pat Cauley, eMedia editor, Electronic Retailer Magazine

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