Archive for the ‘Competitions’ Category

American Soda Championship Challenge – The Semi Finals

Yesterday we shared the Championship Challenge First Round videos with you – today it’s the semi finals, which pitted our marketing man Jordan against none other than Peter Hughes and me, Dave Hughes, against Stef from Admin. If you thought yesterday’s videos were funny, you haven’t seen anything yet! So on with the show… (And yes, Aydin somehow manages to get his face on camera AGAIN, despite losing yesterday!)

Dave Hughes versus Stef

The Challenge: Who can drink a can of American Soda through Red Vines the fastest?

The Winner: Dave Hughes (oh yeah!)

Jordan Pilkington versus Peter Hughes

The Challenge: Who can fit the most sour sweets in their mouth at once?

The Winner: Peter Hughes

Poor Jordan. He didn’t handle that Sour Sweets Challenge well did he! Which gives us a Hughes Brothers final. Tune in to American Soda TV tomorrow to see who will be crowned the American Soda Champion!

American Soda Championship Challenge – Round One

July 11th, 2011 | Tags: american soda championship challenge
Posted in Competitions, Videos
3 Comments »

The first round of the inaugural American Soda Champinship Challenge has taken place and what a competition it was. We recorded it all for your enjoyment. Here’s each challenge as it happened!

James Turner versus Jordan Pilkington

The Challenge: How many marshmallows can you fit in your mouth without chewing

The Winner: Jordan Pilkington

Peter Hughes versus Matt Pearson

The Challenge: Who can eat the most Saltine crackers in two minutes – with no drink!?

The Winner: Peter Hughes

Stef versus Kim Hunter

The Challenge: Who knows the American Soda product range best – under intense camera pressure!?

The Winner: Stef

Dave Hughes versus Aydin

The Challenge: Soda Roulette – who’s getting sprayed?

The Winner: Dave Hughes (yes, this one was ever so slightly disappointing!)

That was just Round One and I reckon it’s only going to get more intense in the semi finals. I am, of course, backing myself to win!

Here’s how we line up for the semis:

David Hughes versus Stef
Jordan Pilkington versus Pter Hughes

Tune in tomorrow to see whether I get through to the final and in the meantime let us know how you think we got on, what you thought was the best challenge…and (dare I ask?!) what you’ve found funniest so far!

Cheers for now!
– Dave

American Soda Video Bloopers!

July 5th, 2011 | Tags: american soda championship challenge, bloopers, video bloopers
Posted in Competitions, Videos
No Comments »

Pretty soon you’ll have a chance to tell us who you think will prevail in our Championship Challenge – and you could win 10% off your next order with us!

Full details of this, including how you can vote, will be out very soon – you’re in for a treat, you really are! And hopefully a few laughs too.

In the meantime, here’s a couple of blooper videos we recorded recently when we were putting together the Championship Challenge.

Firstly, here’s Aydin cocking up his introduction to the live draw we did. Honestly, you’d think a sales manager would know what “Action!” means!

Secondly, here’s what happens when you get too close our beautiful trophy pictured above. Tut tut, Sharon, keep your mitts to yourself!

Keep your eye out for your chance to vote on who you think will win our challenge, coming soon! Remember, you could win a tidy 10% discount!

American Soda Championship Challenge – Watch The Draw LIVE!

June 28th, 2011 | Tags: american soda championship challenge, live draw
Posted in Competitions, Videos
1 Comment »

Ladies and gentlemen, the draw for the inaugural American Soda Championship Challenge has taken place live at the company’s headquarters. The draw was conducted by none other than Peter Hughes in front of a (very) well guarded Championship trophy! Check it out:

(You can also view this on our YouTube channel)

The draw in full with challenges:

1. Jordan Pilkington v James Turner - Most marshmallows in mouth without chewing
2. Peter Hughes v Matt Pearson - Most Saltine crackers – no liquid.
3. Stef v Kim Hunter - Verbal tennis, name American Soda products
4. David Hughes v Aydin - Soda Roulette

The challenges will take place on Tuesday 11th July 2011.

The winner of pairing 1 will play the winner of pairing 2 while the winner of pairing 3 will play the winner of pairing 4 in the semi finals, with the winners of those progressing to the final.

1st Semi Final – Most Sour sweets without chewing

2nd Semi Final – Fastest to finish a can through a Red Vine as a straw

Final – Blind American Soda taste test!!

A big thanks to all of you who made suggestions – over 100 in all! We’re all really looking forward to this!

Cheers
- Dave

Bring it on…..Competition between Americansoda staff!!

June 14th, 2011 | Tags: american soda challenge
Posted in Competitions
113 Comments »

Each member of the Americansoda team would like to think they are the best. To silence the internal trash talkers and to end the squabbling between us we have decided it is only you that can help us……….

Can YOU suggest a way for us to compete with each other? To end the debate once and for all??!! Here are the rules……Firstly and perhaps most importantly we must remain fully clothed (it is for the best, believe me!!) Secondly, all ideas must centre on American soda products and finally it must be done indoors. If these criteria are met then BRING IT ON!!

An example would be, who can eat the most Hershey Kisses in 120 seconds?!!

Further details to follow as to when events will take place and who will be competing!!

Leave your challenges below – and don’t worry if they don’t show up right away, we’ll approve them as soon as we can!

WIN 5lbs of Jolly Ranchers – How Many Sweets in the Jar?

May 13th, 2011 | Tags: jolly ranchers
Posted in Competitions
45 Comments »

All you have to do to be in with a chance of winning a 5lb (2.3kg) bag of delicious Jolly Rancher hard candy is pop over to our Facebook Page, take a look at the pic we’ve put up of a jar full of the assorted flavour sweets and guess how many are in it!

Just add your answer to the comments on the pic – simple. Closest to the right number gets the giant sack of sweeties on the right. (See competition rules below)

We used one of these bags to fill the jar – and there’s still loads left over! There are five flavours in all, including apple, cherry, grape, watermelon and blue raspberry!

Just in case you don’t win you can buy the 5lb Jolly Rancher bag from our store right now.

For those of you not on Facebook, here’s the pic – leave your guess in the comments on this blog post.

Competition Rules

Open to UK and Ireland residents only.
Competition ends at 3pm on Friday 13th May 2011.
In the event that two or more people guess the same closest number, the winner will be chosen randomly via a draw.
American Soda’s decision is final.

Wills & Kate Cake Competition Winner Announcement

May 6th, 2011 | Tags: kate middleton, prince william, royal wedding, wedding cake
Posted in Competitions
2 Comments »

I want to start by saying thank you to everyone who entered our Wills & Kate Cake Competition, it was really good fun looking at all your original and stunning entries. It was NOT fun trying to pick a winner!

I agonised over several entries before finally picking a winner and to be honest, I was so torn between two of the entries I’ve decided to give a runners up prize too!

Congratulations, then, to Grainne Halligan who made the effort to bake this giant chocolate cupcake, complete with Betty Crocker chocolate frosting, marshmallows, M&Ms Pretzel and Hershey’s chocolate syrup.

It looks delicious, I love the fact it has our logo on it and it came SO close to winning the competition outright. For her sterling effort, Grainne wins £20 to spend on anything she likes from our online store. Congratulations, Grainne!

And the winner is…

Just pipping Grainne to the top prize of our Complete Cake Making Kit is Clare Law with her American Soda London Bus Tour cake.

I was completely blown away by the idea of having an open top London bus as a royal wedding cake and there are some really nice touches to her design. Ok, it may not be the best drawing in the world (as Clare freely admits!) but in terms of originality, it wins hands down for me. Check it out:

The mash up of British and American icons (the bus, the Statue of Liberty, the happy couple and even President Abraham Lincoln!) was inspired, as was the use of various American Soda products such as Oreo Cookies, a Hershey’s chocolate bar and various American drinks including Welch’s Grape Soda and root beer. Oh, and the fact that she’s “26 and 3/4″ just cracked me up too!

Clare wins our Complete Cake Making Kit, comprising:

Complete Cake Making Kit Duncan Hines Classic White Cake Mix

Betty Crocker Whipped Fluffy White Frosting

Nestle Premier White Morsels

Nestle Milk Chocolate Morsels

Duncan Hines Strawberry Supreme Cake Mix 517g

Betty Crocker Whipped Whipped Cream Frosting (340g)

Hershey’s Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips

Duncan Hines Confetti Cake/Cupcake mix (517g)

Betty Crocker Cup Cake Icing Petal Pink

Betty Crocker Cup Cake Icing-Buttercup Yellow

Keebler Graham Pie Crust (6oz)

Keebler Ready Pie Crust Chocolate (6oz/170g)

Jell-o Oreo Cookies and Creme Filling

Jell-o Lemon Instant Pudding & Pie Filling

Well done, Clare! And once again, a big thank you to everyone who entered. Which were your favourites and why?

Keep an eye out for our next competition on Facebook and remember, most months we run a #win50 competition on Twitter, giving you the chance to win £50 to spend on anything you like from us – it’s usually the last Friday of every month, so look for that too.

Cheers

- Dave

3 More Wills & Kate Cake Comp Entries!

April 26th, 2011 | Tags: kate middleton, prince william, royal wedding, wedding cake
Posted in Competitions, Photos
No Comments »

As the wedding of the year gets closer the competition is hotting up! Over the Easter weekend (and I hope you had a good one, by the way! ) we had three more entries to our Wills & Kate Cake Competition and your imaginations are clearly working overtime. Take a look at these:

Frank is clearly a fan of Baby Ruth bars but it was the marrying of Big Ben with the Statue of Liberty atop the cake that caught our attention with his entry. Great work!

Clare Law’s entry (related to Frank I wonder?) is far and away the most detailed and I have to confess I love this one as it incorporates some of my favourite American sweets and drinks. The idea of an American Soda London bus tour is intriguing too…

I’m not sure Wills and Kate would appreciate this design but it certainly had all of us at American Soda doubled up laughing!! A right royal throne indeed, and a good play on the happy couple’s initials. Genius!

I’ve been really impressed with the entries we’ve had so far and I want more – you’ve still got until midnight this Thursday (April 28th) to get your entries in to be in with a shout of winning our Complete Cake Making Kit so get baking or sketching and add your entry here.

Thanks a lot!

- Dave

The Royal Wedding – T-Mobile Style [VIDEO]

April 20th, 2011 | Tags: funny, kate middleton, prince william, royal wedding, t-mobile, youtube
Posted in Competitions, Videos
No Comments »

Sorry to keep banging on about Prince William and Catherine Middleton’s Royal Wedding but I stumbled across this on YouTube and HAD to share it with you all. Funny thing is, I was looking for more retro TV commercials for American food and drink products (like this and this) – how this ended up in the listings I don’t know, but I’m glad it did!

As I am going on about the wedding again, please remember to enter our Wills & Kate Cake Competition for a chance to win our Complete Cake Making Kit! Full details in this blog post.

Cheers

- Dave

Wills & Kate Cake Competition Entries So Far

April 18th, 2011 | Tags: kate middleton, prince william, royal wedding, wedding cake
Posted in Competitions, Photos
1 Comment »

Wel, our Wills & Kate Cake competition has been open for a litle while now and we’ve had some great entries so far. Remember, you could win a Complete Cake Making Kit packed with cake mixes, frostings, icings, decorations and even pie cases – all you have to do is design a truly original, unusual cake for the happy Royal couple.

Full details and entry form here.

In the meantime, take a look at the entries we’ve had so far.

This was the first entry we had on the day of launching the competition. In our opinion, it set the bar pretty high. Kelvin Payne has designed a cake not FOR the happy couple, but OF the happy couple. Definitely original and just the sort of thing we were after.

Stacey B went with a more traditional type of cake, but we love the crown on the top. Very royal, very appropriate for the future King of England and his bride. Like the lettering on the cake too.

Sticking with the traditional, Chelsea Hurrell entered this cake design. What we like about this one is the thought that has gone into the little details, right down to the key Chelsea gave us: 1 – silver sugar balls; 2- pink piping; 3 – roses pink. Beautiful.

Joanne Sowinska has picked up on the truly royal overtones of the colour purple and produced – and baked – a cake design accordingly. It’s the feathers that really set this off though, a fantastic idea.

This was the first entry that really blew us away. Grainne Halligan has gone ahead and created the most decadent wedding cake we’ve ever seen! Or in this case, a Giant American Chocolate Wedding Cupcake! And of course, we love the American Soda branding!

One cake? Chris Gorman laughs in the face of the idea. Instead, Chris has gone for a tower of cakes, or rather, a tower of Whoopie Pies! Chris says they are fantastic when made properly, with Crisco Shortening, Hershey’s chocolate and Marshmallow Fluff. Who are we to argue?

Finally, what about this from Becky Newell? Becky picked up on the real English event that is the Royal wedding and applied it to her cake, coming up with a traditional English breakfast inspired design. It looks good, is bound to taste good and is really fighting hard to be our favourite so far!

Brilliant entries so far, we’re sure you’ll agree – but can you do better? Remember, it’s not fantastic art we’re after, it’s originality of thought and design.

Enter your design now to win this lot:

Duncan Hines Classic White Cake Mix

Betty Crocker Whipped Fluffy White Frosting

Nestle Premier White Morsels

Nestle Milk Chocolate Morsels

Duncan Hines Strawberry Supreme Cake Mix 517g

Betty Crocker Whipped Whipped Cream Frosting (340g)

Hershey’s Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips

Duncan Hines Confetti Cake/Cupcake mix (517g)

Betty Crocker Cup Cake Icing Petal Pink

Betty Crocker Cup Cake Icing-Buttercup Yellow

Keebler Graham Pie Crust (6oz)