I learned of a bold move by VitaminWater yesterday. I was reading through a LinkedIn discussion of examples of great copy on the web, and several writers admired VitaminWater.com (in comments dated about a month ago). When I went to the site… I was redirected to the product’s Facebook fan page. I was so surprised that I tried it again, then took a closer look at the Facebook page to see that the content is focused on March Madness. Ah ha, it’s a temporary promotion.
And it’s a bold move. When I mentioned this to fellow marketers, they replied, “How annoying!” and “Who would go to vitaminwater.com anyway?” This latter question is actually a great one because the answer is: fans. Fans who aren't looking to study their copy--fans who would much rather engage with their beverage of choice.
Rather than having a middleman website driving folks to your Facebook page, why not drive them straight to the source, where they spend a lot more of their time? I am impressed with this idea and with the derring-do of the execs who approved it. It is a powerful way to jumpstart your Facebook presence. Also a little scary to relinquish control, even for four weeks of a basketball tournament.
Will be interesting to see if this becomes a trend for products to use during short-term promotions to build a Facebook fanbase—or even a more permanent brand engagement method?
