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It looks like the energy drink pioneer is making a move into the challenging world of mobile phones.

At present, this is probably for Austria only, the brand's home market.

My German is lousy, so I can't read the contents of the site, but it looks like handsets and lots of content featuring the brand's various flavors of extreme sports.

It's certainly one way of controlling your brand image- owning the medium of choice for your core target.



Posted by Ed Cotton Coca-Cola recently purchased Vitamin Water for $4.1 billion, it was a high price to pay, but the brand has been truly imaginative and innovative; in both it's product formulation and marketing.

Contrast Vitamin Water, with a press release I saw this morning.

Leading Brands launches "STOKED".

The name itself is just a giant cliche of everything that's been ripped from extreme sports culture in a trend that began ten years ago, but it gets worse.

"STOKED Energy Drink evolves from its dramatic Dragon icon. Dragons are wise and complex creatures that have a strong presence in almost every culture of the World. From the most revered sign of the Chinese Zodiac to Draco, one of the largest constellations in the Northern sky, to the tale behind the classic red cross English banner so popular at soccer events( YOU MEAN THE ENGLISH FLAG?), to the main characters in numerous popular U.S. movies, Dragons have played -- and continue to play -- an important role in history and folklore. A visceral connection to the human psyche such as this is critical to establishing any new brand."

There's a reason great agencies, great designers and great brands make the big bucks, it's because they do something different and carve out a new perspective for  their clients or the marketplace.

Stoked's press relase already looks like it came from The Onion, but not content with ripping off every cliche known to man, it goes for a superior claim with an ingredient benefit.

"In keeping with Leading Brands' commitment to bring healthier products to market, STOKED is formulated with natural sugars, not genetically modified HFCS as used by other energy drinks."

The world doesn't need another energy drink and certainly one that's crippled by such an appalling a lack of originality.

My only hope is that the release is a hoax.


Posted by Ed Cotton