Is gum the new paint?
Not quite, but Mentos has figured out a way to turn its round gum and packaging into an artist’s canvas, with a recent campaign featuring works of art created from the product.
‘It’s tricky because you need to make the positioning distinctive, but also in line with the overall Mentos brand,’ says Laurence Pichon, Canadian marketing director at Montreal-based Perfetti Van Melle Canada.
She briefed her agency, Cossette Montreal, and CD Patrick Beauduin came back to her with the idea of highlighting one of the gum’s key differentiation points – its round shape – by making ‘PopArt’ by popping the pieces of gum out of their packaging. ‘I thought it was an absolutely brilliant idea. After that, the rest of the campaign was easy,’ says Pichon.
Mentos did three PR stunts last month in Montreal, Vancouver and Toronto, featuring artists creating large pieces of art out of Mentos gum blisters in high-traffic areas like the Métro and Toronto Eaton Centre.
A microsite, www.makeartpop.ca, lets users create their own works of art at home by ‘popping’ out gum. At press time, the site had attracted 50,819 unique visitors and over 12,600 virtual drawings.
The campaign, which is running across Canada in English and French, also includes TV and OOH executions playing on the ‘PopArt’ theme. MusiquePlus was so impressed with the idea, they pitched a promo to take the concept even further and built their own Mentos ‘PopArt’ competition, which Pichon happily signed off on. It’s being promoted at musiqueplus.ca, and winners will be featured on a special segment on the station.
Pichon plans to do another guerrilla effort in July.
client: Laurence Pichon, national marketing director
agency: Cossette Communication-Marketing/Blitz
VP, creative convergence: Patrick Beauduin
CD: Antoine Bécotte
web CD: Katherine Melançon
copywriter: Antoine Bécotte, Janine Hopkinson
AD: Antoine Bécotte, Nicolas Thiboutot
client services: Sylvain Lemieux, Shirin Gunny, Claire Simoneau, Katherine Ruiz, Brian Bauer
execution: Marie-Julie Dallaire
photo director: Jérôme Sabourin
production house: Cinélande
production: Sylvie Dubé
agency production: Stéphanie Côté
management team: Julie Harvey, Nathalie Robillard
sound: Yan Dal Santo, Sonart
music: Apollo
