CytoSport Takes Muscle Milk Viral

BENICIA, Calif. CytoSport took its Muscle Milk® Drink. Evolve. message to the masses in March, with an expanded advertising and branding campaign. The company launched its first national television advertising campaign immediately before the NCAA Basketball tournament, while a complementary online video campaign targeted spring break vacationers.

We want to maintain credibility with athletes while also speaking to mainstream consumers such as health conscious college students and March is an ideal time to do this, said Nikki Brown, chief marketing officer. But mostly we are having a lot of fun with these campaigns and taking the Muscle Milk brand to the next level.

The TV debut campaign, Just Look Good, first aired March 8 and is comprised of three 15-second vignettes featuring Dave, Chet and Katie who, just by looking good, can get away with a lot.  Each character has discovered the power of incorporating protein into their diet by drinking Muscle Milk after a workout. The campaign runs through April 7 on ESPN, ESPN2, Dish and DirecTV networks, and can be viewed on YouTube.

Simultaneously, Spring Break It Down, a humorous online music video showed two main characters in a spring break town rapping about their ridiculously good looks and dance moves while enduring spring break-ups, falling asleep in the sun and airbrushed portraits on T-shirts. The video reached 1 million views during the week of spring break.

Part of our overall mission in working with CytoSport is to introduce Muscle Milk to a mass audience, so we have created campaigns that capture their attention and relate to them through popular culture, said Lauren Godfrey, associate creative director at Pereira & ODell, the agency of record for Muscle Milk. People who arent familiar with the idea of a protein nutrition shake might find it intimidating or think that its not for them, but by using humor and the idea of Drink. Evolve. we are letting them know that protein has benefits for everyone.