Social Media Case study: Vitamin Water’s newest flavour created by Facebook fans
11th January 2010, 08:57 pm by Matt Rhodes
Vitamin Water’s latest flavour, launching in March this year, was developed and named by the brand’s Facebook fans. The black cherry and lime flavoured drink will be called ‘Connect’ and one Facebook fan, Sarah from Illinois, won $5,000 for her role in developing this new product.
The competition was interesting and unique in that it used Facebook fans to develop all aspects of the product:
- Choosing the flavour – over the summer Facebook fans were able to monitor and add to buzz about different flavours. The more chatter about a flavour online, the higher it was rated on the Facebook page. And by mid-September the most ten talked-about flavours were put to Facebook fans for them to vote for their favourite. This is a good example of using a community to help sort and rank ideas in a co-creation process. Fans couldn’t create their own flavours from scratch, but could influence the top 10 flavours and then vote for the best.
- Designing the packaging – when the flavour had been selected (in October last year), the Facebook fans were able to use the app to design the packaging – the look and feel, the blurb and colours used on the label. Fans could collaborate with up to two more Facebook friends to develop the packaging and the final winners were chosen by a panel of experts.
- Naming the product - alongside the packaging and look-and-feel, Facebook Fans were asked to name the product. The team who created the winning name would be given a prize of $5,000.
This is a great example of co-creation and working with your customers and fans to help to develop your product. Using experts from the brand at critical input stages – choosing the original flavours that could be shortlisted and then selected, and reviewing and agreeing on the winning product design and name. The community was used to help shortlist and select the flavour to be produced, and to create a range of options for the design and name of the product itself. Many brands would be anxious of allowing consumers to create a product like this, but at every stage the brand and consumers were playing different roles and doing different things. It is true that some of the best and most intelligent people don’t work for your company (whoever you are) and so working with them in a controlled but creative way like this can have great results.
And for the more than one million Fans of of the Vitamin Water Facebook Page, they feel like they have had real involvement in the development of the new product. That’s one million people who feel ownership of this product. One million potential purchasers when it launches.
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Nick Corston:
Is it REALLY co-creation? Not seeing much CREATIVITY. Would hate to see creation/creativity get put up as this years hype/hate words and go down the pan as a result with Web 2.0 and all the other well meaning labels.
Sure, it’s great to see brands recognise and involve consumers but this is little more than online voting in action.
12 January 2010, 2:36 pmAkash Sharma:
The time when people have started talking a lot of about ROI stuff to get definite results from social media.
12 January 2010, 5:00 pmThis clearly states that a Brand can make the people happier by such campaigns not by slapping some new ads on the products.The best part for these brands is the people who are kind of cult followers are increasing due to the new interactive tools, I just had a look at Marketing Sherpa’s latest chart to get the stats.
Thanks for sharing !!
Footprints (13.01.10) | Chris Deary:
[...] Case study: Vitamin Water’s newest flavour created by Facebook fans [...]
13 January 2010, 4:07 pmBrand Democracy: It would rock n its coming « Uber Marketing Blog:
[...] also named the product, I don’t think there can be a better example of Brand Democracy.At FreshNetworks blog they have done a case study on this, I recommend you to read [...]
15 January 2010, 5:36 pmMelissa Luther:
I do NOT see how this is in any way a great example of marketing!! This is just a cheap contest. 5000 for the winner? How much would they have invested in new product development.. 5 million?!?! Is this going to have an effect sales? No. Are people going to go out and buy 10 extra cases of Vitamin Water because of this? No. I know everything should not be about sales… but I agree with Nick Corston above.. If you want a good example of marketing and drink companies check out Jones Soda!
15 January 2010, 6:29 pmRunning with Scissors » Blog Archive » Crowdsourcing: Vitamin Water Announces New Flavor:
[...] Full details about the can be found here. [...]
15 January 2010, 8:33 pmdenise lee yohn:
this new flavor and the way it was “co-created” detracts from the vitaminwater brand — all other vitaminwater flavors contain ingredients that deliver health/wellness benefits as described by their names (e.g., “defense” contains zinc which boosts immunity) — the vitaminwater brand is supposed to stand for vitamin-enhanced water that delivers health/wellness benefits — i don’t see how a flavor made up of fruity flavors that sound good to random consumers and named by a popularity contest fit with the vitaminwater brand — whether or not the campaign was a good social media effort is not the point — the point is whether or not the company used this social media tactic to build its brand — in my mind, it didn’t
17 January 2010, 8:01 pm17 Social Media Case Studies and Examples | DreamGrow Social Media:
[...] Vitamin Water’s newest flavour created by Facebook fans, by Matt Rhodes. Vitamin Water’s latest flavour, launching in March this year, was developed and named by the brand’s Facebook fans. The black cherry and lime flavoured drink will be called ‘Connect’ and one Facebook fan, Sarah from Illinois, won $5,000 for her role in developing this new product. [...]
28 January 2010, 5:51 pmooda5:
Great Example of “Collective Intelligence” – Vitamin Water’s Newest Flavour Created by Facebook Fans…
Posted by: Josh Letourneau Vitamin Water’s latest flavour, launching in March this year, was developed and named by the brand’s Facebook fans. The black cherry and lime flavoured drink will be called ‘Connect’ and one Facebook fan, Sarah from Illinois,…
2 March 2010, 12:32 am30 MORE Examples of Corporate Social Media in Action:
[...] Vitamin Water let its fans create a new flavor on Facebook. [...]
25 August 2010, 2:09 pmYannig:
@Nick @Melissa and @Denise: It might not bring up a new soft drink that will appeal to the masses, but it shows how the Coca Cola Company approaches social media and uses it to implicate internet users. I think it’s not so much about positioning, it’s essentially about positionning the brand, don’t you think ?
I posted a presentation (in French!) about this on SlideShare: http://www.slideshare.net/yannigroth/vitamin-water-connect
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[...] que no valgan para medir los resultados. Tomemos el caso de desarrollo de productos nuevos que hizo Vitamin Water en su página de Facebook donde se usó el ejército de seguidores para escoger el nuevo sabor, su [...]
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15 January 2011, 7:38 amCollect + intelligence = $$ « apeplowball:
[...] Rhodes, M. (2010, January 11). Social Media Case study: Vitamin Water’s newest flavour created by Facebook fans. Retrieved February 27, 2011, from Fresh Networks: http://www.freshnetworks.com/blog/2010/01/case-study-vitamin-waters-newest-flavour-created-by-facebo... [...]
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