MiO Engages Millennials Via Entertainment Alliances

Kraft’s innovative MiO ‘enhanced water’ product is rolling out a programme of niche, hip music, stunt and festival sponsorships to engage with millennials across North America and bring its ‘Make It Original’ campaign ideas to life.

The Kraft brand in the US and Canada has expanded its music space alliances through several festival and event partnerships – including New Orleans’ Voodoo Music + Arts Experience over the Halloween weekend and Toronto’s North by Northeast festival.

In the summer, MiO was one of six title sponsors of the Toronto-based music, film and technology festival and activated with an integrated programme that spanned product sampling, a branded streetcar and a smart phone app that consumers could use to take and post photos at concerts.

MiO’s innovative NXNE ‘Squirtcar’ was a moving music venue. It travelled along Queen Street from McCaul to Dufferin, showcasing several music artists each night – with live performances by bands such as Dragonette and Wintersleep.

MiO’s first-of-its-kind app technology, called MiO POV, which enables festival goers to use their smartphones to take over the mainstage screens at Yonge-Dundas Square.

All those at the show were able to live stream it from their point of view, in real time, for the whole crowd to see.

MiO also turned Toronto’s The Hoxton nightclub into MiO House.

The strategy will be similar at Voodoo where MiO will also offer attendees free water stations throughout the event.

MiO will showcase new and existing products at the Voodoo music festival including Strawberry Watermelon and Orange Tangerine. New extensions for 2014 include MiO Energy Tropical Thunder and MiO Energy ACAI Berry.

Kraft is using these alliances to ‘elevate the MiO brand’ and ‘connect it to a wider, millennial-based audience’ – something of a departure for parent company Kraft’s more traditional ‘mums’ target group.

‘Since music is a platform that passionately connects with the widest demographic – millennials and beyond – we explored sponsorships with Live Nation’s expanding festival presence in North America,’ explains MiO brand manager Luke Cole.

These festivals and entrainment property tie-ins certainly offer MiO a chance to reach a sizeable millennial audience across North America.

They also offer an initial connection point to start ongoing social media conversations before and after the festivals using the brand’s ongoing #MakeItOriginal hashtag.

‘We showed how our expanding festival presence in North America can create brand affinity and reach over 100,000 attendees. Live Nation sees this as a strong partnership, and believes the water stations will be well received by fans as an added festival benefit,’ said Maureen Ford, president of Live Nation’s media and sponsorships.

Comment

The music tactic is part of its wider entertainment alliance approach as MiO uses a branded entertainment programme to reach millennials.

Other 2014 examples of this include partnering with Columbia Pictures/Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures on a joint campaign for ‘22 Jump Street’.

MiO activated the film tie-in with the ‘full ride promotion that used a prize-led competition engagement platform offering such incentives as a brand new 2014 Chevy Camaro, or $25,000 towards college tuition to those participating.

These sponsorships creatively leverage the brand’s ongoing ‘Make it Original’ brand campaign – which encourages consumers to express themselves and celebrity originality:because MiO offers consumers a way to customise water and thus ‘make it original’).

This general marketing campaign included TV work

aimed at driving conversation across both social and traditional channels.

It also linked with other property’s connected to the male 18 to 30 millennial demographic such as the trick shot social media sensations ‘Dude Perfect’ for extreme trick squirts.

Dude Perfect created a series of “trick squirts” using MiO that aimed to show ‘how radical’ water can be through engaging online video content.

These MiO videos gained more than 124,000 views in less than one month and 95% of the viewers were men under 35.

This enhanced sponsorship strategy aims to combat slowing sales for MiO and the general water enhancer category.

Between 2011//2012 MiO sales grew 114%, but dropped back a further 19% in 2013/4.

The overall enhancer category has grown just 3% in 2014 (slipping from 43% growth in 2013 and 163% in 2012).

Links

MiO YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/user/miosquirtsome

MiO Website

http://www.makeitmio.com/

NXNE Squirtcar

http://nxne.com/tag/mio-squirtcar/

MiO POV ITunes

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mio-pov/id881162491?mt=8

MiO POV Android

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=air.ca.pixelpusher.miopov