Oh MiO

CRUNCHY NUGGETS:  I like to blog about real-world experiences, so when my free sample of Kraft’s new MiO arrived, ooh goody!  Somethin’ to share!  (It’s the little things, peeps — humor me, thanks.)  Kraft is introducing a new way of “enhancing” plain water.  Instead of powders and packets, you can give your water a flavor squirt.  As much or as little as you wish.  “Customizing,” if you will.  Makes sense — but it is truly a new behavior, short of squirting lemon or lime juice into your water.  That said, Kraft has gone the route of extensive sampling.  I am among 100,000 samples available on their Facebook page right now (sidenote:  there are plenty left if you want yours).  I also saw that sampling was done in Walmarts recently; as well as tons of mentions on Freebie blogs.

Now, what I thought was particularly crunchy as a participant in all of this is the Facebook conversation they’re facilitating.  Basically, you get your sample through Facebook and then they encourage you to go back to FB to talk about it.  And certainly, you see the good, the bad, and the ugly posted.  Which from a brand POV, is good (no, really, it is) as you want to hear the real-time, real-world reviews from consumers — even if the reviews are “my sample exploded in the package.”

What do I think?  Honestly, I haven’t tried it yet.  And I am feeling kind of odd about adding in my own artificial ingredients into water as you would do with food coloring (drop, drip, drop — not that adding powder is that much different, really).  But again, I do applaud the “get it into hands and get people talking” thinking behind the support for this innovation.  Apparently, it’s the first big, big new category from Kraft in 15 years, wow.  Here’s the FB link if you want to check it out: http://www.facebook.com/#!/MiO?sk=wall  TASTY TREND:  Socially Acceptable