Dr. Pepper went looking for a promotion to convey the “luxurious indulgence” of its new Diet Cherry Chocolate Diet flavor, and decided that nothing says luxury like a Las Vegas wedding on Valentine’s Day—with comedian Pauly Shore on the guest list.
The beverage company is teaming up with Web portal Yahoo to move into the Las Vegas Hard Rock Hotel on Feb. 14 and perform weddings and vow renewals for pre-registered couples, with the whole marital marathon streamed live over the Internet.
Couples who surf to http://valentinesinvegas.yahoo.com are encouraged to “Get here, get hitched, get funky” by signing up for a ceremony in one of three chapels Dr. Pepper will set up in the Hard Rock for the day: An “Elvis-centric” venue, a traditional white wedding chapel and a third described only as “indulgent.”
“We’re trying to drive trial on Diet Dr. Pepper,” said brand manager Terry Hockens. “Diet Dr. Pepper is a rich, indulgent, no-taste-sacrifice diet beverage, and the tie-in with Las Vegas and weddings and rich, indulgent experiences was perfect.”
As well as streaming live video of the ceremonies, Dr. Pepper will be conducting man-and-woman-on-the-street interviews for playback during slack periods and will have teams roving the downtown area encouraging couples to come in and tie the knot, Hockens said. Among the newlyweds-to-be is one couple who were winners of an internal contest at Dr. Pepper.
The company plans to moderate the proceedings for appropriateness but hopes to be able to do so with a light touch.
“We want this to be off-the-cuff and spontaneous,” Hockens said. “We’re not too worried because we think our consumer is willing to have some fun with us.”
Dr. Pepper paired up with Yahoo for the promotion because of the Internet content and execution skills the Web portal could provide, Hockens said. Yahoo’s e-mail and instant messaging applications are some of the most heavily used programs on the Web, especially among the young-adult market that Dr. Pepper wanted to reach.
Yahoo has also been able to bring in tech features that add dimensions to the Las Vegas promotion, such as the integration of its Flickr photo-sharing platform and customizable e-cards to propose, invite friends or simply RSVP to Dr. Pepper for the occasion. Yahoo is also providing content from its entertainment channels to the ValentinesinVegas.com Web site.
“Basically, we bring people who are going to consume their product, and we do it in a way that’s relevant for the promotion,” said Brian Zeug, consumer packaged goods category development officer at Yahoo “Whether it’s through a media campaign to drive people to this program through Yahoo Mail and search marketing, or actually through hosting the site itself within Yahoo, we can bring the people and then make the experience a bit more sticky, to encourage people to spend time with the promotion and then pass it along to friends.”
Yahoo will also provide a buzz marketing team to help Dr. Pepper offer product samples during the day-long reception at the Hard Rock Hotel.
Actor/comedian Pauly Shore won’t be the only star on the bill at the Valentine’s in Vegas promotion. Also slated to appear is singer Tay Zonday, whom Dr. Pepper tapped last November for a branded remix of his Internet video hit “Chocolate Rain.”
Hockens said that promotion, which generated buzz in advance of the launch of the Dr. Pepper Diet Cherry Chocolate flavor last January, was meant to break through young adults’ resistance to mass-media ads.
“We partnered with Tay in advance of our Cherry Chocolate launch because our consumer fans were already fans of his video on YouTube,” she said. “It was an engaging way to drive awareness of Diet Dr. Pepper in an unusual channel. A lot of our consumers are not using traditional channels like TV and radio. We wanted to reach them where they are, which is on the Internet.”
Network
