Hidden Graphics

Background

Mountain Dew had had a relationship with skateboarders for over 12 years. Their philosophy was, 'To get to easy you have to go through hard'.

But this hard-to-reach and often cynical young audience would not be influenced by advertising alone. Perhaps the 10 hardest skateboarders in the country could get through to them?

Idea

The first task was to find the 10 hardest skateboarders in New Zealand.

To do this, a new kind of skateboard was created.

Traditionally, with a regular board, when it was skated hard its graphics got wrecked. With Mountain Dew's Hidden Graphics boards, this was reversed. The harder they were used, the better the graphic became.

The design was laser-cut into the ply, filled with resin and then hidden. By the time the message was revealed, the skateboarder had proven what it said.

A limited run of the new boards was created and a film released online. There was an almost immediate reaction with comments such as, "That is the best thing I have ever seeeeeeeeenn", "They're f*cking dope as f*ck", and, "F*ck that's actually so cool haha".

To get one of the boards, a skater simply had to prove he or she skated hard enough to deserve one by posting photo or video evidence to the Mountain Dew Facebook page. This audition process generated content and found the brand its 10 top skaters.

Results

The campaign helped find and recruit New Zealand's 10 hardest skaters. These grass-roots ambassadors then began to ride for Mountain Dew, spreading the message by living it and using their boards as a badge of their hardness.

All of this for the price of a few skateboards.

Due to the tactical nature of the campaign, the results may not seem huge but were regarded as being good in an exceptionally cynical segment.

2,936 Likes of the film and 237 shares. Overall, the campaign has attracted 22,219 Likes.

Our Thoughts

The ‘Rule of 9’ is a rough and ready guide to how online communications works. For every 1 person who posts a video of themselves skateboarding to an extreme, there will be nine people who are sufficiently motivated to comment, like or share. But behind them are 90 people just watching. So, Colenso BBDO are a bit apologetic about the numbers of their campaign but they needn’t be at all.

This campaign seems to me to be a perfect illustration of how an idea to engage just ten people can actually reach vastly more of the right sort of audience. Young, male, thirsty, wanna-be daredevils. This is top-class planning as well as an entirely appropriate creative idea.