We’ve all faced that moment of anxiety when you attempt to correctly pronounce a word you’ve never seen or said before. After experiencing this multiple times while dining out at Italian restaurants, I’ve succumbed to pointing to the menu, which works every time. But when it comes to the names of people or brands, pointing to the word on a sheet of paper doesn’t usually work. However, thanks to a new contest by the oft-mispronounced energy drink brand Xyience, pronunciation attempts don’t have to be stressful.
After noticing that some consumers struggled to pronounce its name, Xyience decided to turn the feat into a video competition to help educate the public.
“We know our true friends, fans and followers already know how to pronounce Xyience like pros, but we believe there is still work to be done to educate others about our hard-to-pronounce appellation,” said John Lennon, president of Xyience, in a statement.
Therefore, it launched its “How Do You Say Xyience?” video contest, which asked fans to create and submit an original video that helps people understand how to correctly pronounce Xyience. The contest was inspired by “Xy-What?,” a video that featured Xyience team athletes Dan Hardy, a UFC welterweight fighter, and Mike Escamilla, a BMX professional and extreme stuntman. The two duked it out while searching for people who could pronounce Xyience correctly.
By having fun with its name, Xyience was able to better market its brand and spread the word about its pronunciation. In case you’re still wondering, it’s pronounced “zy-ince.”