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Matthew Burns:
I am a Dr. Pepper. I mean I’m a pepper too. Okay, Steve, you and I had an awesome time last summer. We did a trip down to Dallas onboarding a new client. Then we drove our butts down to Austin, Texas where our home office is for the Wizard of Ads. And in between Dallas and Austin is Waco, Texas.

Stephen Semple:
Before you let it out, what are you?

Matthew Burns:
I’m a Dr. Pepper. I mean I’m a pepper too. So we got to go to the museum and man, we were so excited. We were all set up to go because we both have a shared experience. So we know the song of “He’s a pepper. She’s a pepper. You’re a pepper. They’re a pepper.”

Stephen Semple:
And we also have a shared experience, though we didn’t do it together. Last time you were in Ireland, I said to you, you’ve got to go to the Guinness museum.

Matthew Burns:
Exactly.

Stephen Semple:
We have the shared experience of the Guinness Museum, which if you’re in Dublin, you must visit. Whether you drink beer or not, you got to go. It’s amazing. So we have that shared experience as well. We were talking about that on the drive. You had been recently back from Ireland. We were on that drive. I remember we were talking about it so that was in our head. That was in our head going in.

Matthew Burns:
I was lucky enough to go out to Ireland and visit a new client out there and then got to spend some time at St. James Square. So we’re all excited. We’re hopped up on this. Okay, we’re going to go check out another awesome brand’s museum and we go in and it started off decent.

Stephen Semple:
Okay.

Matthew Burns:
Yeah, it started off decent there. Lots of details.

Stephen Semple:
Yeah. It actually did start off well because one of the very first things was that recreation of the original soda fountain store where Dr. Pepper started.

Matthew Burns:
To me, it was good. There was lots of details. We spent a bunch of time reading and then we got into another section and it was just a lot more of a lot of the same. It didn’t feel like there was a growth through the thing. And you get upstairs and it’s where their marketing is. And here, so this is where we live. Oh my God. The marketing section. This should be so good. And then they’ve got some good ads, some bad ads. Every brand has both. They have a room playing their television ads. So here let me play an ad. I’m going to play an ad. Watch.

Jingle: I drink Dr. Pepper and I’m proud. I’m part of an original crowd. And if you look around these days, it seems to be a Dr. Pepper craze. I’m a pepper, he’s pepper, she’s apepper, we’re a pepper. Wouldn’t you like to be a pepper too? I’m a pepper, he’s a pepper, she’s a pepper. If you drink Dr. Pepper you’re a pepper too. Be a pepper. Drink Dr. Pepper.

Matthew Burns:
Be a pepper. So that was one of the ads that we saw on the television and it’s a blacked out room. I mean you have to understand, we went last year, it was 2024 and it was a 24 inch tube television with drapes around it.

Stephen Semple:
Oh where the color was off. And the sound was…

Matthew Burns:
Yes the color was off and the sound didn’t match the thing.

Stephen Semple:
Yeah. It was terrible.

Matthew Burns:
The experience was, it was so lackluster. It was like, Hey, did you guys remember that you had a museum? Did you guys realize what you were trying to do here? And so it was really hard to see. And then there was a second building that I guess they added on. It had a little bit more there, but it was…

Stephen Semple:
The second one was a little bit better because you could do some blending of your own Dr. Pepper drinks and they have the soda fountain and things along that lines. So here’s the thing. Dr. Pepper is highly successful because it is now number two in the cola space. It has surpassed Pepsi. It’s now Coke and Dr. Pepper. That’s huge.

Matthew Burns:
Huge.

Stephen Semple:
And they’ve done this really amazing marketing campaign where it’s really focused on universities and things along that lines. So they are successful and they have these great campaigns. Of which, they shared none of the existing campaigns that are going on today that are successful. All they shared was the old ones.

Matthew Burns:
That’s right.

Stephen Semple:
But here’s the thing. Brand, we’ve often talked about this. What goes near your brand? Everything. So now who’s the type of people who are going to go to a Dr. Pepper museum in Waco, Texas. There’s nothing in Waco, Texas. Waco, Texas is a little bit out of your way. So you’re going to Waco, Texas, you’re going to this museum. Who’s going? Fans of Dr. Pepper. That’s who is going. The fans of Dr. Pepper are excited about this and they go walking through the door and meh… It’s worse than that. That TV could have been fixed for 200 bucks going to fricking Costco.

Matthew Burns:
Put up a flat screen.

Stephen Semple:
Here’s where it gets a little bit sticky. The museum is not run by Dr. Pepper. The museum is run by a nonprofit. I get it. But Dr. Pepper…

Matthew Burns:
Dr. Pepper licensed it.

Stephen Semple:
This is your brand and you’ve given the people rights to use it. Donate these people some money so the museum becomes awesome.

Matthew Burns:
You need to be kick ass. You’re number two. You need to be kick ass.

Stephen Semple:
It felt like you used to be great is how it felt. And there was even plaques in there that you and I were laughing about how the founder talked about how things need to be entertaining and we’re like, yeah. And this is boring as all get out.

Matthew Burns:
This is my best analogy. I think it feels like the redheaded stepchild.

Stephen Semple:
Is it?

Matthew Burns:
Which I know. I’m sorry. I know I want to love it so badly. We were so excited to go and we love the brand. I mean, I did that ad specifically from 1970. I was born in 1972. I know that that’s the one that sticks to me and I know it. I could sing the song I wanted so badly to love the experience. And again, I just came off the high of, now don’t get me wrong, Guinness, good job. You guys hired the Imagineers from Disney. You spent some coin. I get it. But Dr. Pepper doesn’t have to go that far. They could have done 10 times better with way less than half the budget. They just need to put some mental space to it and really think it through. Oh it’s so sad guys.

Stephen Semple:
It really is. And you’ve got people because it’s not free admission. You’re paying to go in, so you’re paying the go in. It’s like it’s a lost opportunity where you could be creating raging fans and social media postings.

Matthew Burns:
There we go. That’s exactly it.

Stephen Semple:
No one posts stuff about how awesome that museum was. No one. No one says when you’re in this area, you got to go see this, like Guinness. When you’re in Dublin, you’ve got to go. You got to go to that.

Matthew Burns:
Yeah. I even went through the reviews of the Google reviews and they have a 4.4 and if you look at any of the good ones, the good ones are, they’re not like raving. They’re just saying, oh man, I remember from a kid and I was so glad I got to go and I happened to be in Waco. Nobody’s flying to go to Waco to be able to go through this thing. All the negative ones were saying exactly what you said, which I know you said not even it’s worse than meh, but all the answers…meh. Somebody said it looks like Snapple bought it and then sold off the museum and then forgot about it. I mean all the comments are what we felt. Well normally you think about in negative comments, you get a whole bunch of varying negative comments. Most brands have varying negative comments.

Stephen Semple:
Correct. That’s a good point.

Matthew Burns:
All of these negative comments are identically met.

Stephen Semple:
Yeah.

Matthew Burns:
Dr. Pepper, sorry. Not-for-profit, for Dr. Pepper Museum. Here, call us. We’ll go hold the screws to Dr. Pepper. Let’s get you some cash to vamp of this thing up so you guys can kill it. You should be killing it because it’s a great brand. We would love to have seen it.

Stephen Semple:
And because of the Soda Fountain area, the part that’s popular, there’s a fair number of people traveling. Like the museum was not dead. There was a fair number of people traveling…

Matthew Burns:
Yeah, we waited in line to get a drink and we spent more money in the gift shop. It was awesome.

Stephen Semple:
The gift shop was awesome.

Matthew Burns:
Right? The swag was good. But the experience guys, it’s the experience that people are going to talk about forever and ever and ever.

Stephen Semple:
Yeah, That’s it. And that’s all they got to ramp up.

Matthew Burns:
So I don’t know what we got to do. Steve, I think you and I need to do, maybe we need to launch a campaign towards Dr. Pepper …

Stephen Semple:
To fix their museum.

Matthew Burns:
To help fix their museum.

Stephen Semple:
You got to donate 5 million bucks or whatever it is.

Matthew Burns:
Get out your wallet. We know you’re making money and we’d love to be involved. We were there. We were expecting more and we didn’t get it. And I am going to stop apologizing. You know what? It wasn’t good. And I do not blame the not-for-profit. They’re doing the best that they can with what they have.

Stephen Semple:
True.

Matthew Burns:
Dr. Pepper, you should know better.

Stephen Semple:
Yep, absolutely.

Matthew Burns:
Let’s leave it that guys, if you agree or disagree, let us know the comments. And you know what? I don’t care. If you didn’t go, then you can’t say anything. I know it’s so rude going right at our audience, but if you do have an experience that you want to talk about from Dr. Pepper Museum, please let us know. If there’s another museum that you think is really kick ass and awesome, let us know too because we’d love to go check it out. This is something that we like doing. We’d love seeing what big brands have done to make their experiences amazing and we’d love to know that too. So let us know and we’ll be back in a week to talk to you again.

Stephen Semple:
Alright, thanks Matthew.

Matthew Burns:
Thank you Steve.

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