As I was watching TV a couple weeks ago, I saw the new TV commercials for Vitaminwater10 featuring Mother Nature. I thought it was really entertaining, especially when she asked the skunk if he was on a personal call. What really caught my eye, however, was the last frame of the commercial that featured the URL of vitaminwater10 as www.facebook.com/vitaminwater10. My eyes got big and I sat up asking my boyfriend, “Oh. My. Gosh. That’s Huge! That’s So Smart! Do you know what that means?!”

To me, it means that Vitaminwater, sold by a unit of the Coca-Cola Company, understands that creating a website for the new product will direct consumers to that site, but only for so long and with limited engagement. A Facebook fan page on the other hand, allows consumers an opportunity to truly interact with the brand and each other. If you add in the new elements of a fan page (like status updates that are viewable in your fan’s main news feed), the return on directing traffic to your Facebook page has never been greater.

I did some more digging on the Vitaminwater10 product launch, and all my suspicions were proved. Vitaminwater knows their audience, and is in the beginning stages of executing a $40 million to $50 million dollar product launch that is covering all the bases from event marketing, social media, traditional and who can forget the Vitaminwater favorite, celebrity spokespeople.

I first looked into whether or not the Facebook Fan Page was Vitaminwater’s only official website. I had to know whether they really had the guts to pull off a major product launch without a traditional website. Apparently, they still had to please the big guys on top, because there is http://www.vitaminwater10.com/. And I think that’s just fine, because Facebook isn’t for everyone. But you know what’s interesting? When I searched for ‘vitaminwater10′ the only reason I found that site was because of a sponsored search ad. The traditional site didn’t even rank organically! But you know what did rank ? The Facebook Fan Page.

Other elements of the campaign include a Twitter profile, an online influencer campaign, a YouTube Channel a vitamin water store in SoHo, and more. The store, which looks like a giant design within reach showroom on acid, held a launch party hosted by Carmen Electra and attended by spokespeople Shane West and celebrity trainer Ramona Braganza. Earlier the day of the launch, West and Braganza attended a nicely executed event in New York City’s Union Square featuring a pop-up gym. Consumers were able to sample the beverages and then were given a chance to burn off the 10 calories on exercise bikes, yoga balls, playing rock-paper-scissors and tossing balls at a dunk tank.

As for whether this new product will calm the critics who view Vitaminwater as just as bad as soda, who knows. What I do know is that Vitaminwater should take a bow for their courageous foray into new media, and not with just a Twitter profile, an online community, a YouTube Channel or an influencer campaign, but with all of them. Take a bow, Vitaminwater, and one more for good measure to shake off those ten calories.

Detective Wuerffel, signing off. Thanks for reading.

**I also noticed that Ramona Braganza, the celebrity trainer/ vitaminwater10 spoksperson, just started up her own personal Twitter account around the same time as the product launch. Coincidence? I think not**

This entry was posted on Friday, April 10th, 2009 at 2:52 pm and is filed under Risdall Integration Group, Risdall Marketing Group, Risdall Online Marketing Group. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.