Mountain Dew set forth with a goal to engage millennials where they spend their time online. However, they found that influencer marketing was becoming more and more commonplace. Creators were working with multiple brands, diluting the impact of partnerships over time. The decision was made to create an influencer program that would work across action sports, basketball, art, music, and gaming in a manner that would have a lasting impact for the brand, drive engagement, and be cost-effective.
While a lot of brands work with influencers on many one-off projects, Mountain Dew's main objective was to cultivate deeper, mutually beneficial relations over time, while consistently driving relevance with cross-cultural Mountain Dew was looking to drive relevance with cross-cultural millennial males in an effort to grow cultural capital in an online space.
With the help of Epic Signal, Mountain Dew launched the first ever, creator-driven, branded YouTube Multi Channel Network - The MTN Dew Green Label MCN -- in early 2016, and signed an exclusive roster of talent to multi-year endorsement contracts. The creators produce branded content around impactful moments for the brand, focusing primarily on sports, music and male lifestyle (Super Bowl, Dew Tour, etc.).
The Green Label MCN is still working closely with top-tier YouTube creators across skateboarding, gaming, basketball, and lifestyle verticals to ensure that their target demographic -- the active millennial male -- remains engaged.
To ensure the success of the multi channel network, we signed all-star talent such as Dominic (Dtrix) Sandoval, the most popular dancer on YouTube, and Grayson (The Professor) Boucher, the largest basketball channel on YouTube. We also signed popular skateboarders Josh Katz and Nigel Alexander, along with and e-sports legend Dyrus.
In addition to tapping influencers for branded content, Mountain Dew recognized a number of benefits by forming long lasting relationships with creators, including:
Additionally, the Green Label MCN also benefits YouTube creators by providing:
Mountain Dew collaborated with Green Label influencers throughout 2016 to create content and awareness around campaigns such as:
The Green Label MCN has paved the way for how brands should work with digital influencers and has created a sustainable advertising platform for Mountain Dew to engage millennials and generate revenue for years to come.
In less than a year, the MCN has generated:
In 2017, the MCN will be expanding even more with all new talent, bigger events and is expected to double Mountain Dew's 2016 revenue from the MCN.
