SodaStream is the “3D printer” of the beverage category, reckons MD Myles Anceschi. Feed in the ingredients and create your product. Reinventing itself from an 80s novelty that had gone flat a few years ago with a new design and an attacking challenger brand strategy, the aim now is to call for action. Apart from 'buy SodaStream' as the underlying message, the question is what should that call be?
To find the answer, SodaStream has launched a series of adverts created with Ten's premium unit, Generate. It wants to find out which of the five ads is most effective and then pick a winner.
Anceschi told AdNews that its controversial ads, which have attacked the bottled drinks industry and big brand soda makers and ended up banned in the UK and from airing during the Super Bowl, had paid dividend. He claimed the brand had grown revenues 51% globally last year. Australia sales grew 45% and have been growing at a similar compound rate since 2007.
Those ads were "good, worth it and sticky. They provoked thought if nothing else but had no call to action. That is what we want now.”
The ads are part of a “significant above the line” push over the next 18 months for the brand, which spends about 50% of its ad budget on TV, with the remainder split between digital, PR, social, and trade.
Whereas in the 80s SodaStream was all about fun, with kids living their own version of the era's "greed is good" mantra and going through gas cannisters and sugar syrup in hours, the aim of the four ads is to highlight SodaStream's current key selling points and see which resonate best with consumers.
Anceschi said they were: the convenience of not lugging bottles home; the control afforded to parents over what kids are drinking; the environmental benefits of reducing landfill; and choice of any desired sparkling drink literally on tap – the 3D printer bit.
Interestingly, the brand has not pushed the cost angle. “SodaStream soda water works out about 20 cents a litre, the cheapest in retail is about 90 cents for 1.25 litres at Coles,” reckons Anceschi.
See the ads below.
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