Hello faithful friends of SURGE and welcome to the 134th edition of SaveSURGE News! We’re shaking up the world of soda, one can at a time.

Update: Bring SURGE to Wal-Mart
SURGE fans, you continue to impress and amaze with your participation in our Bring SURGE to Wal-Mart campaign! Wal-Mart has received thousands of your letters and we hope they will receive thousands more as new fans find SaveSURGE.org each and every day.

If you haven’t written in to Wal-Mart yet or if you want to do so again please fill out their Customer Feedback Form at this address:

Visit this link to write to Wal-Mart.

Ask Wal-Mart to help us convince Coca-Cola to re-introduce SURGE into their stores, even if only for a limited time. SURGE fans, we’ve worked hard to get to this point. We deserve a chance to put our money where our mouth is. Tell our friends at Wal-Mart that if we get the chance to buy SURGE again in their stores, we will take FULL advantage!

For those of you who want to spread the word on a local level, follow the link below to download our printable SaveSURGE.org flyer (PDF format, 253 KB in size):
http://www.savesurge.org/surge/flyer_walmart.pdf

As for the progress we’ve made with this campaign – we know for a fact that Wal-Mart has contacted Coca-Cola regarding SURGE! This is great news, however, we must continue to put the pressure on these two corporate giants. The more pressure we place on them, the more likely they are to come to some sort of agreement.

Keep up the fantastic work and keep checking www.SaveSURGE.org for the latest updates.

Marketing Podcast Mentions SaveSURGE.org
As we reported in the last edition of SaveSURGE News, marketing expert and author Jackie Huba mentioned SaveSURGE.org recently in her blog, Church of the Customer. On February 17, she and “Creating Customer Evangelists: How Loyal Customers Become a Volunteer Sales Force” co-author Ben McConnell distributed their first-ever Church of the Customer Podcast.

For those of you not familiar with Podcasts, they are a new-fangled way of broadcasting on the internet. Essentially, a show is pre-recorded and then distributed via a blog, rss feed or plain old website in mp3 format. The tech-heads are calling it a Podcast because, well, you can download the show and take it along on your iPod!

Jackie and Ben graciously took the time to talk about SaveSURGE.org in their inaugural show. The gist of it was that our community has marketed itself well and has single-handedly brought back interest in SURGE despite Coca-Cola’s discontinuing the brand.

The show is a little over 27 minutes long and SaveSURGE.org’s mention in the broadcast comes at approximately 21:15.

To download the copy of the Podcast, please visit this link:
http://customerevangelists.typepad.com/blog/2005/02/church_of_the_c_1.html

Windows users may right-click on the orange “Podcast” button and select “Save Target As…” from the menu. The file is approximately 11 MB.

Thanks to Jackie and Ben for their kind words and support!

Taste Test Showdown: SURGE vs. URGE
SURGE fans in America have long wondered: How does our favorite drink compare to its Norwegian cousin, URGE? URGE fans in Norway have also wondered how the two sodas stack up. Thanks to fans in both countries, now we know!

Our friend Phoenix recently purchased some URGE from a friend in Norway. It was expensive but worth every penny! Fortunately, he also had a can of SURGE to compare it to.

We invite you to check out the results of the taste test along with some great photos in our For the Love of SURGE section:
http://www.savesurge.org/surge/phoenix_urge.shtml

12 Pack Auctions for $91.00
Another 12 pack auctioned off for big bucks on eBay. This particular one was interesting because it was a full 12 pack that featured the original SURGE logo. This means it was from sometime between 1997-99. Despite the soda’s advanced age it still managed to sell for a whopping $91.00!

That just further proves our point: A real market still exists for SURGE!

See the auction:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7135879395

Check out more auctions in $URGE on eBay:
http://www.savesurge.org/surge/special_ebay.shtml

Poll Results: We’ll be seeing you at Wal-Mart!
The latest SURGE Poll asked you: Do you think that SURGE will be in Wal-Mart stores this year?

49% - Yes
28.1% -Unsure
22.8% - No

Total Votes: 153

With the great response from SURGE fans all around the country, I think we are proving ourselves to both Wal-Mart and Coca-Cola. I think it’s time that our loyalty be rewarded!

That’s all the time we have for this week. Thank you SURGE fans for your continued support.

Sincerely,

Eric Karkovack
Co-Webmaster
www.SaveSURGE.org