I was looking at companies that decided to take a serious look at social media and found that one of the biggest risk takers was Pepsi Cola. ABC News stated that in Super Bowl ads from 1999 to 2009, Pepsi spent over $142 million to encourage consumers to drink the Pepsi brand. Pepsi's decision to pull its advertising from the Super Bowl telecast and concentrate on its Social Media strategy to try and create a movement will be the largest and most visible showdown between broadcast media and the Internet to date.This is a huge amount of resources that are spent every year on 30 second ads. Pepsi decided to give away $20 million dollars through Social Media to make communities better through suggestions from consumers. This campaign is called the The Pepsi Refresh Project. With the loss of visibility due to viewers watching less and less television, Pepsi decided to gamble on a project that would show them in a more positive light as a proactive corporate citizen. This was a huge risk on Pepsi's part because Coke had already committed to the Super Bowl ad campaign. While the ROI remains to be seen, Pepsi will never look at marketing in the same light ever again.
Source: http://abcnews.go.com/Business/pepsi-big-gamble-ditches-super-bowl-social-media/Story?
This is a really interesting post, Vic. The Pepsi Refresh Project was a really successful campaign for them! I remember seeing it everywhere last year. It also swept through campus last year when WKU's own FIJI Fraternity was doing their "FIJI's Across America" Alzheimer's bike ride, which was a Pepsi Refresh campaign candidate (if I remember correctly, they were in the top few campaigns and came very close to winning the $25, 000!)I think Pepsi was pleased with their gamble and that it really paid off. Like you said, they were seen as a "corporate citizen" instead of this monstrous company only producing ads solely for the money. I believe their use of social media for this campaign really encouraged the public to do good things for their communities and it also skyrocketed Pepsi's popularity.
ReplyDeleteGreat post Vic! I appauld Pepsi's attempt to branch out and dip into different marketing outlets. People aren't watching TV like the used and I think they are wise to think of out of the box ways to reach consumers. Like Lainey, I remember the Pepsi Refresh Project and I would be curious to see how beneficial they felt the campaign was overall. I always think it is smart for businesses to get their name out into the community in a positive way.
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