When Pepsi declined to advertise in this year’s Super Bowl, it was big news. The best sure-fire mass media event in the nation lost one of its mainstays, who opted for a significant $20 million corporate responsibility-based social media program instead.
The Pepsi Refresh online program — set to launch this Wednesday — combines a few online trends. Pepsi Refresh focuses on civic engagement with a particular bend towards hyperlocal activity. While social, it is expected to go well beyond Facebook and Twitter and involves significant crowdsourcing initiatives for participants who want to win funding for local causes.
This program represents a significant gamble for Pepsi, but one that has been coming for a while. It makes sense that a brand that has been losing market share is willing to take this risk, and really try to invest a new form of marketing that will dramatically increase loyalty and Word of Mouth.
In theory, this is great news, but there are pitfalls to consider. Chase Bank ran a similar campaign two months ago awarding $5 million, but inspired as much angst in its effort (hat tip: Beth Kanter) as it did good. Chase’s issue was a failure to react swiftly to a groundswell demanding more transparency into the process.
It’s a bold move with great potential. $20 million can do a lot of good, more than the 3 or 4 minutes of airtime it would have bought. If invested well, the dollars can also inspire great loyalty. There are many hurdles in architecting such a campaign that need to be considered, too.
Let’s hope Pepsi can execute on the dream, and provide one of the biggest corporate social media successes this side of Dell. I’m rooting for them!
General Media Trend Implications
Forrester had an interesting analysis on their interactive marketing blog about how even the most venerable TV programs need to be concerned about online competition. With fragmented media continuing to fracture and TV audiences dwindling, this trend — signified by Pepsi moving away from mass programming — will only hasten. At the same time, video and TV — particularly mobile TV is getting hotter. It will be fascinating to watch the evolving video marketplace.
I’ll reserve judgement until I see it in action, but I’m not holding out much hope given the manner in which Pepsi previously reached out to bloggers, and mismanaged attempts to use Friendfeed.
http://thewayoftheweb.net/2008/12/im-not-the-only-one-questioning-pepsis-unfriendlyfeed/
Declining to spend a large amount on advertising may appear a brave move, but the brave bit comes when time and resources have to be committed to follow-up on the plan…
Could make for an interesting Coke vs. Pepsi match-up. Coke is the master of all things traditional while Pepsi is making a bid for new media.
Can they master it? I’m not too optimistic after reading the infamous logo design document. But maybe they’ll prove me wrong.
Dan and Rex: I totally understand the hesitancy. I do believe we should encourage these folks, though. Better to move in the right direction.
Considering Pepsi has been losing market share it’s nice to see they have a new game plan, than being said, Social Media campaigns can go either way depending on how they are planned out and executed.
Interesting read, thanks for sharing.
I’m glad to see more companies finally catching on to Social Media.