16 May “Do the Dew” and get personal
Here at Sonder, we were excited by recent news that Mountain Dew in the States was reclaiming their digital audience and creating the first ever brand-owned multichannel network (or MCN as they are known).
An MCN is an aggregation business which consolidates thousands of digital videos from independent producers (predominantly published on YouTube channels) for brands to advertise to the people who watch them. And we’re talking big numbers. Aggregator MCN’s such as Maker Studios and Machinima attract up to 10 billion views every month from over 650 million subscribers. The problem for advertisers is that they are just buying a large anonymous audience. It’s the modern day equivalent of Network TV; great for reach, but no customer data, so no real understanding of who’s watching or how to connect with them directly.
This development is significant because one of the world’s largest marketers, Pepsico-owned Mountain Dew, has decided to cut out the MCN content middlemen and deal directly with content creators. Thereby giving themselves a more direct line to their customers – a relationship upon which they can now build.
By owning the relationship with the content creators, who in turn own the relationship with their viewers, Mountain Dew can start to get personal. Their CMO says the biggest learning to-date is that unlike the publishers and media owners, who advertisers typically deal with, these content creators are people, not brands. As a result their audience is connecting with them as a person, not a brand. As a consequence Mountain Dew can create deep personal relationships with multiple content tribes rather than one superficial relationship with a large aggregated audience.
Our recommendation is that marketers follow Mountain Dew’s example. Reclaim your audience through the creation of content platforms that you own, feed and amplify. To us, this is how modern marketing assets are created.
Do the Dew!