For over 50 years Sun Drop has been a little-known citrus soda with a small, loyal, regional following and limited marketing support. In an innovative venture, Sun Drop launched the brand nationwide. VMN’s insights, reach and connection with youth allowed Sun Drop to speak with credibility to the new target consumer: Millennials.Consumer insights informed a package redesign, brand makeover, and a character-based TV commercial. Then a unique UGC promotion was devised, which became a key element of an integrated, multi-platform campaign. The Sun Drop commercial generated over 8 million aggregated views on YouTube, while 9000 fans created their own Sun Drop Channel on the UGC microsite – generating over 100 million impressions overall.In the social space, Sun Drop’s Facebook community reached 1,049,630 fans, up from 50,000 pre-launch. Meanwhile, the Twitter community has grown by 398 percent and over 317 million banner impressions were recorded through MTV.com, Facebook, Twitter and other sites.At retail, Sun Drop has exceeded the goal of 80 percent distribution at grocery by achieving 90 percent ACV as of August 2011. And Sun Drop hit #2 in the citrus category, with market share approaching 5 percent.

Consumer insights informed a package redesign, brand makeover, and a character-based TV commercial. Then a unique UGC promotion was devised, which became a key element of an integrated, multi-platform campaign, with many of MTV Networks’ linear and non-linear channels serving as the cornerstones for the comprehensive national media plan.

Since there was a close relationship between the brand and MTV, sponsored programming focused on MTV and music. The on-air commercial ran across MTV, MTV2, mtvU, VH1, VH1, Comedy Central and TeenNick, as well as other networks (BET, Cartoon Network, ABC Family, Fuse).

The commercial also ran on MTV’s high-definition, digital billboard, 44½ located in the center of Times Sqaure.Also targeted were key Millennial sites Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, and key VMN properties MTV.com, MTVu.com, Ratemyprofessor.com, VH1.com, and CMT.com.

Over 300m impressions were generated on multiple platforms chosen to engage and activate Millennials where they spend the most time.

Sun Drop is now the #2 citrus CSD with a 4.8% share (Q3 2011), up from 3.1% (Q1 2011). Distribution in groceries has skyrocketed from less than 10% to over 90% ACV. Total awareness within target increased from 21% (Q4 2010) to 46% (Q3 2011).Sun Drop’s Facebook community reached 1,529,266 fans, up from 50,000, while Twitter grew from 1,915 followers to 10,918 followers.

The commercial has over 8m aggregated views on YouTube and Vimeo, over 9,000 fans uploaded their own versions to the "Show Us How You Drop It" microsite, and 317 million banner impressions were recorded online.