COMPANY: Hype North America
CAN DESIGN: Competent but lacking. I admittedly am going to be harder on a drink calling itself Hype because it's a great name and captures the essence of the soda wars. The text logo, while nothing special but a solid design, is readable at a distance and the strength of the name will probably overcome any design weaknesses of the overall can. Their other drink, Hype Energy Gold can is much more attractive because of some additional color. Honestly, I feel the regular can is missing something, it just borders on being generic. They need to evolve the design somehow.
I'm also going to be harsh on the slogan: "Live Life--Love Life--Love Hype." Without wanting to sound sexist, this sounds like something from a Lifetime Movie. THIS IS HYPE, MAN! Give us a slogan that lies to us, tells us we're invincible and young, something outrageous. It's not about loving life, it's about ripping off your clothes, running naked in the snow and risking arrest. No sentiments, we want adrenaline. I want to hear loud music in my head when I read the slogan. It's Hype, it's not an Oprah moment about when someone just about died and they realize how precious life is. Needs work.
CAN DETAILS: 8.4 FL OZ, 120 Calories
PRICE: I am not sure. In full disclosure Hype sent me a case of their product for the purposes of review. I would guess this would sell on the average shelf for something like 1.99. It's the size of a Red Bull and that's the comparable price.
Also included were some shot glasses, only they were plastic. I like the concept of an energy drink shot glass, but definitely not made out of plastic. If they make it out of glass they have a winning idea. Plastic is too cheap looking.
WEBSITE: Official website is Hype.com . How they got such a great domain, I don't know. Again, the name of this drink is extremely strong. So does the site live up to the name? Well, I would give them kudos for some of the graphics but quite honestly I'm turned off by the dominating gray color scheme. I have had to work with a client in the past who insisted on buying web templates to save money and unfortunately that's what this site reminds me of--an altered web template. Get rid of the gray and emphasize the blue in the logo. Gray is blah when it comes to hype. Fact is, I would go with the deep blue, the red color of the drink and some flashy yellows here and there. The site isn't living up to the name and the themes are endless. Think Hype as in retro-disco, think Hype as in extreme sports with blood and guts, think Hype as in the little nerdy guy winning the lottery and getting the bling-bling and babes--where's the story, where's the focus, where's the angle that's going to hook the consumer and build upon the name? Where's your brand identity?

In all fairness it does look like the company site is still being constructed. They have a games section but I couldn't get any of the games to start and the selection is lacking. I mean I probably have all of the retro games in my arcade section here on Swensonfunnies.com already. Is it really that expensive to build a new, specific game for a drink? I believe you can get one for 500.00 to start and that's not much when it comes to marketing. I would be building over the top humor or sports games.

There's a gallery section which isn't too bad, but again the color design and setup feels wrong. The Shiznit section seems to just be links to other sites. The Phonezone section does have promo images of babes holding their drink that you can send to mobile buddies. Overall, not much to hold my attention.

As someone who builds content for a living I am surprised not just by Hype but by many of the Energy Drink sites that do not put enough attention into building content. You can have a site that competes with other college-oriented sites simply by hiring someone to do some comics, games, flash toons, videos, and even blogging on a regular basis--build it into your budget. Mostly these Energy Drink Sites sponsor events and than try to create interest that way. I would say that's definitely one way to do it but the site itself could be drawing in visitors who simply want to play a game or watch a funny promo toon. What if you did do a promo video that suddenly is so hilarious that people are copying it and posting it to Google Video and YouTube.com. Then you have a campaign that has a life of its own.

One other drawback to the site, I would suggest from experience, is that they are relying far too much on Flash. This is going to make it hard for them to get into the search engines and they should be especially focused on creating content that does pop up in Google. Google can't read text or images that are locked into a Flash Menu. You need a lot of descriptive text placed next to original content or gallery images, etc.

I know I'm spending a lot of time on the site, but the site is important and I like rooting for smaller companies trying to get into the battle. Hype needs to sit down and reconstruct their site and even before doing that they need to come up with a campaign that defines Hype, whether it is a spokesman, a mascot, a theme--it has to be over the top. They shouldn't be afraid of being timid either. Their energy drinking audience is college age (or wants to be college age) for the most part and thrives on adrenaline and the dating scene. Go for the gut, shock people somehow.

TASTE: It has cranberry and elderberry in it but is so sweet it's like candy, which is not unusual for an energy drink. Not my favorite taste, however, I have almost drank an entire case of Hype by the time I've put up this review. That tells me that it is a competitor, but it may depend on price.
SUSTAINED EFFECTS: There is a slight metallic aftertaste which I don't care for. I don't know how quite to describe. I think the taste could use some tweaking.
OVERALL: The name is a winner. There's no question that they are ahead on that part of the war. So I think the deciding factor will be price. Place Hype up against Red Bull on the shelf and if Hype is a better deal for your money it may win out. The marketing of Hype needs work. All is not lost, maybe they need time to really do some constructive criticism. I would lose the slogan and come up with something better and I would come up with a theme that defines Hype. They are not living up to the name. And the creative juices should be flowing. I suppose the question is what is their marketing budget? Not sure, even on a small budget there has to be some ideas that can get the public's attention. At least in America all you have to do to figure out hype is watch MTV or some of the sporting channels. Hype should not be afraid of being boastful, they should make fun of the competition, they should create their own diva with an attitude or have a rap star overloaded with bling-bling be their spokesman. Something that owns the name "Hype."
WOULD I BUY IT AGAIN? Possibly, depending on price. If it is between Red Bull and Hype and the price is the same I'm probably going with Red Bull due to taste.

GENERAL COMMENTS: Like I said, if Hype can create hype they may have something. If they play it safe, they'll do moderately well in the short term because of the name but won't be much competition in the long term.