Mention the name Tab and most people think of a retro diet cola. But the launch event and guerrilla marketing campaign for Tab Energy, a new take on the brand from the Coca-Cola Company, was hardly old fashioned.Produced by Strategic Group, the event centered on the new beverage's hot-pink can and the logo of the energy drink. Pink carpet and pink velvet ropes separated guests from gawkers outside Drive In Studios; inside were pink gobos of the Tab Energy logo displayed on walls and models wearing white logoed parkas and holding trays of the beverage. Coat-check tables and even caterwaiters' ties matched the pink-and-white grid pattern on the can.
Jars of pink lollipops (with sticks that read "Fuel to be fabulous") and throw pillows printed with either the Tab Energy logo or trimmed with the grid pattern jazzed up four different seating areas. (Strategic Group created all the branded merchandise, including boxes of the beverages and canvas totes given out as part of a guerrilla marketing campaign.)
Chef & Company passed hors d'oeuvres including wild mushroom crostini with herbed chèvre, caramelized pear and fontina tartlets with truffle oil, beef empanadas with guacamole, and lump crab and corn spring rolls with cilantro aioli. For sweets, there were cheesecake lollipops and mini cupcakes. Guests even sipped on Cosmopolitan-esque Tab Energy cocktails.
"We tried to stay away from playing off the retro image of Tab," says Strategic Group's Noah Tepperberg. "It's Tab Energy—not Tab—so we wanted to focus on the new."
That involved more than just the launch party. A guerrilla marketing campaign involved sending samples of the product to editors, designers, publicists, and showrooms during Fashion Week. Strategic Group sent out four-packs of the cans with straws presented in a pink-and-white grid-patterned box, along with a card that explained how the beverages would give them "fuel to be fabulous" during the hectic week ahead.
"We're trying to put this in front of an authentic fashionista group and let it trickle down," Tepperberg says. "We're targeting people who live an active lifestyle, not just [people who will] drink it with vodka. It's part of the whole directive of the brand."
—Erika Rasmusson Janes
Related Stories
Press Gets Pink Bites at Kitty Breakfast
Journalists Bliss Out at Credit Card Launch
Hermès Launch Matches Food to Fragrance
Jars of pink lollipops (with sticks that read "Fuel to be fabulous") and throw pillows printed with either the Tab Energy logo or trimmed with the grid pattern jazzed up four different seating areas. (Strategic Group created all the branded merchandise, including boxes of the beverages and canvas totes given out as part of a guerrilla marketing campaign.)
Chef & Company passed hors d'oeuvres including wild mushroom crostini with herbed chèvre, caramelized pear and fontina tartlets with truffle oil, beef empanadas with guacamole, and lump crab and corn spring rolls with cilantro aioli. For sweets, there were cheesecake lollipops and mini cupcakes. Guests even sipped on Cosmopolitan-esque Tab Energy cocktails.
"We tried to stay away from playing off the retro image of Tab," says Strategic Group's Noah Tepperberg. "It's Tab Energy—not Tab—so we wanted to focus on the new."
That involved more than just the launch party. A guerrilla marketing campaign involved sending samples of the product to editors, designers, publicists, and showrooms during Fashion Week. Strategic Group sent out four-packs of the cans with straws presented in a pink-and-white grid-patterned box, along with a card that explained how the beverages would give them "fuel to be fabulous" during the hectic week ahead.
"We're trying to put this in front of an authentic fashionista group and let it trickle down," Tepperberg says. "We're targeting people who live an active lifestyle, not just [people who will] drink it with vodka. It's part of the whole directive of the brand."
—Erika Rasmusson Janes
Related Stories
Press Gets Pink Bites at Kitty Breakfast
Journalists Bliss Out at Credit Card Launch
Hermès Launch Matches Food to Fragrance
The Coca-Cola Company launched its new Tab Energy drink at a pink party at Drive-In Studios designed to match the new beverage's pink can.
Jars of pink lollipops (with sticks that read "Fuel to be fabulous") and throw pillows jazzed up seating areas.
Models in white parkas offered the new drink from specially designed trays.
Even the catering trays mimicked the drink's new can.
