This past February, like a geyser of fizzy soda hitting them in their collective corporate faces, the bigwigs over at Coca-Cola finally embraced the Diet Coke/Mentos phenomenon of last summer.

If you missed it (shame), Stephen Voltz and Fritz Grobe, the pair behind the website EepyBird.com, unleashed a mesmerizing display of chemistry and online filmmaking. One hundred and one bottles of Diet Coke were turned into choreographed spewing fountains with the addition of Mentos. People loved it, they passed it around, and for a brief blip, these strange men in goggles and lab coats were the toast of the Net. And, by extension, so were Diet Coke and Mentos.

The free publicity was like capturing lightning in a Coke bottle. Only, the reactions from the two corporations couldn't have been more different. Mentos thought they'd died and gone to marketing heaven while Coca-Cola, not so much. Which is odd considering so much of its advertising of late has been so on the money. In an official statement released by the company, they said, "the craziness with Mentos doesn't fit with the brand personality."

Eight months later, the company invited Voltz and Grobe to Coca-Cola HQ to show off their crazy antics to the entire company.

The about-face was so drastic that you'd almost think someone over at Coke had been to Trend School. Don't laugh, it actually exists. Offered by a company called The Intelligence Group, Trend School "goes beyond simply talking about the trends that are hot right now and, instead, provides a complete immersion into the entertainment, brands and activities that are shaping the lives of young people at the moment." Wannabe cool execs pay to "shop where young people shop, eat where they eat, see their rooms, talk to their friends and visit their campus".

It's an interesting concept, and those who attend can be credited with at least having a clue that they've got to do more to be relevant to younger demos. But to me it seems a bit flawed, in the same way that Coke's late-for-the-party arrival shows a failure to understand savvy consumers.

The problem is, once the big corps figure out what the kids are really into, they're already on to something else. And if they happen to get in on a trend early enough, they run the risk of killing some of the raw energy, the coolness, by formalizing it through advertising.

It's a fine balance - finding that sweet spot between effectively and respectfully speaking to a young, trendsetting demographic, and trying so desperately to look cool that the result is looking desperately out of touch and relevant to no one.

The reality of a frenetic, fragmented media world where consumers now share in the messaging is that sometimes it's just best to roll with it. Don't over-think spontaneous public reaction, don't try too hard to own it, but revel in the fact that consumers are willingly interacting with a product. Otherwise, like Coca-Cola, you'll be a day late and a dollar short.

Cheers,
Rae Ann Fera
Editor