Facts

Quick Facts:

EepyBird

• Their videos have been seen over 150 million times.

• Founded in 2005, EepyBird explores creativity, particularly how ordinary objects can do extraordinary things.

• EepyBird has been nominated for two Emmy Awards.

• EepyBird has won four Webby Awards: two awards in 2007 for Best Viral Video and the People’s Voice Award, and another two awards in 2009 for Best Branded Content and the People’s Voice Award.

The Coke Zero & Mentos Rocket Car

• The Coke Zero & Mentos Rocket Car has taken almost four years to get from the first concept to video launch.

• Powered by 108 bottles of Coke Zero and 648 Mentos mints, the current distance record is what is captured on the viral video: 221 feet.

• Early experiments with skateboards, garden carts, and other prototype vehicles first propelled a human over 30 feet in November of 2008.

• In February of 2010, EepyBird attached a utility trailer to the front end of a bicycle and, for the first time ever, sent a human, Fritz Grobe, over 100 feet.

• The video was filmed in one of the historic blimp hangars at the Marine Air Base in Tustin, California.

The Coke & Mentos Phenomenon

• EepyBird’s first video, The Extreme Diet Coke & Mentos Experiments, also known as Experiment #137, was released on June 3, 2006.

• The original video was shot in one take and used 101 two-liter bottles of Diet Coke and 524 Mentos mint candies.

• An Advertising Age cover story in January 2007 called EepyBird’s Extreme Diet Coke & Mentos Experiments “the most important commercial content of 2006.”

• By posting the video at Revver.com, a video hosting site that pioneered sharing ad revenue, EepyBird was the first viral video creator to make money directly from their video.

• It has been viewed over 100 million times online and on television.

• EepyBird now has patent-pending nozzles that use 6 Mentos mints for each two-liter bottle of Diet Coke.

• For the best results, the soda must be warm, around 80 to 90 degrees Fahrenheit.

• Any carbonated beverage and many candies (and a variety of other items) will create at least a small geyser. The combinations of Diet Coke & Mentos and Coke Zero & Mentos are particularly powerful.

• The main reason EepyBird uses diet soda is that it isn’t sticky – and during each performance, they get soaked to the skin, so it’s important that it not be sticky.

• Geysers are created primarily by a physical process called nucleation, rather than a chemical reaction.

• The surface of each Mentos is sprayed with over 40 layers of liquid sugar, which creates thousands of microscopic bumps (nucleation sites) and all those nucleation sites are what makes the geysers so big.

• The first video received an Emmy nomination in 2007 for Outstanding Broadband Content and won two Webby Awards in 2007 for Best Viral Video and the People’s Voice Award.

• The sequel, The Extreme Diet Coke & Mentos Experiments II: The Domino Effect was sponsored by Coca-Cola and Mentos. In coordination with Google, this video was part of a campaign to drive traffic to a contest at Coke.com. Some of the results include:
  • 8 million video views on EepyBird.com, Coke.com, and Google Video
  • Traffic to Coke.com doubled for three months
  • #1 shared link among teens for 3 straight months
• #1 video on Google Video for 9 straight days

• #31 viewed video of all time on Google Video

• The sequel also received several awards, including:
  • Emmy Nomination
  • OMMA Best in Show
  • Creative Media Awards
  • MIXX Awards
  • Society for New Communications Research

• The Extreme Diet Coke & Mentos Experiments led to two 5% increases in the sales of two-liter bottles of Diet Coke and a 15% increase for the year in the sales of Mentos in the United States.

• EepyBird recycles or repurposes all the soda bottles used in their experiments.

The Extreme Sticky Note Experiments

• The Extreme Sticky Note Experiments marked the first time viral video creators premiered a new video on television, breaking new ground by bringing together new media, traditional media, and sponsors.

• This project was sponsored by ABC Family, OfficeMax, and Coca-Cola and was produced by DigiSynd, a subsidiary of Disney.

• The video has been viewed over 4 million times online, with over 13 million views on television.

• The video uses over a quarter of a million sticky notes. The final total of sticky notes used: 280,951. That weighs about 300 pounds and is enough sticky notes to make a solid stripe over 13 miles long.

• The sticky notes were provided by 3M, who were kind enough to supply EepyBird with over 4 million Post-it notes for their experiments. That’s over 2 tons of Post-its.

• Most of the sticky notes from EepyBird’s experiments can be reused, and those that are damaged beyond repair are recycled or put to use in the office for their intended purpose.

More About EepyBird

• Fritz Grobe and Stephen Voltz met in 2001 at the Celebration Barn Theater, an international school for physical theater.

• Before starting EepyBird, Fritz was a world-class juggler and Stephen was a lawyer.

• EepyBird has performed live in:
  • London
  • Paris
  • Madrid
  • Istanbul
  • Las Vegas
  • New York
  • Los Angeles
  • Holland
  • Belgium
  • the Bahamas
  • And more

• EepyBird projects have included videos for:
  • Blue Man Group -This video appeared as the “Uncommon Creativity Intermission Video” during Blue Man Group’s “How To Be a Megastar 2.0” arena tour in the fall of 2006. This video was sponsored by Mentos (Perfetti van Melle).
  • Weezer: “Pork and Beans” –This video featuring Internet stars was filmed in May 2008. The video won a Grammy for Best Short Form Music Video in the 51st Grammy Awards.
  • Barenaked Ladies: “The Sound of Your Voice” -This music video featuring Internet stars was filmed in early 2007.

• EepyBird has created videos sponsored by:
  • OfficeMax: The Extreme Sticky Note Experiments
  • ABC Family: The Extreme Sticky Note Experiments
  • Coca-Cola: The Extreme Diet Coke & Mentos Experiments II: The Domino Effect
  • EepyBird Goes to 07.07.07
  • Perfetti van Melle (Mentos): The Extreme Diet Coke & Mentos Experiments II: The Domino Effect
  • Blue Man Group Uncommon Creativity Intermission Video
  • Coke Zero & Perfetti van Melle: Coke Zero & Mentos Rocket Car, Coke Zero & Mentos Rocket Car II
  • Coca-Cola & McDonalds: How to Put a Straw in a Coke Glass

• EepyBird has appeared on:
  • The Late Show with David Letterman
  • The Ellen Degeneres Show
  • MTV’s Total Request Live
  • Mythbusters
  • The Today Show
  • Good Morning America
  • Vh1
  • And more