Pepsi-Cola has decided to shake up their branding (as opposed to a can of Pepsi, which is not advised) to see what happens.
FULL DISCLOSURE: I don’t like Pepsi. The brand itself is fine, but any carbonated beverage, aside from
You may have already seen some posts from several “social media influencers” (Shankman, PSFK, Rohit Bargava, among others) in the marketing and advertising field about Pepsi's innovative new campaign, being dubbed by many the "Pepsi 25" for
their choice of 25 bloggers to single out and send three packages to over the course of an hour (gotta suck to be an Account Assistant at Pepsi’s agency, huh?). Since I wasn’t one of them, I've grabbed the image posted on AdRants (thanks, AdRants! :) ) .
I’ve been a bit busy lately, but being late to the party gives me the benefit of some “widescreen views” about the campaign, and seeing what many of my fellow bloggers had to say the new initiative. Here’s the topline thus far:
- The new logo looks a lot like Barack Obama's campaign logo. Really. I assume Pepsi's was being mocked up before Barack started his campaign (not sure when he debuted his, but let’s assume over a year ago), but it’s really, really close.
- Who are these “Pepsi 25” influencers that Pepsi chose (though you can find them by checking out the Pepsi Cooler and other blogs—see below)?
- How did they choose them (friends in the blogosphere?)?
- Blogs/observations/rants that this campaign won't necessarily get any of the bloggers to like or drink Pepsi any more than they do now. I think they’re more the Mountain Dew, hyper-caffeinated types, probably, but I don't think that's the point of the effort. More on that below.
Pepsi’s making moves, no doubt about it. They’ve always been eager to make connections with youth and pop culture. It started in the ‘80s as the “Voice of the New Generation/Pepsi Generation”. According to AdAge , this effort will cost them hundreds of millions of dollars worldwide as part of a multi-year transformation. But the Social Media part is probably of minimal cost. You know something? I think it’ll work.
Why?
Research shows that 1 in 2 online Americans access social networks. I’ll write more about that in another post, but as you can imagine, the young (under 30 – grr..) people of today make up the bulk of the users, and that number will grow as that demographic matures. But also...
Social Media is the most efficient, cost-effective way in which to:
- Grow a publisher's audience, increase engagement, and generate new revenue streams
- Enable Brands to engage their customers more effectively in an increasingly fragmented world
- Enable Marketers to evolve from delivering messages, to engaging in a conversation with customers
And get this:
"93 percent of Americans believe a company should have a presence in social media, while an overwhelming 85 percent believe a company should not only be present, but also interact with its consumers via social media."
- 2008 Cone Business in Social Media Study, September, 11-12, 2008
It could be argued that this is a very well-executed campaign, if only for the reason that these influencers have large followings (especially from marketing geeks like myself), and therefore will just get a lot of buzz. From what I can see, it’s succeeded. Going by the compiled list of "Pepsi 25" targets on ParkerWeb, the campaign's hit rate as of this writing is 16 for 25, which is pretty decent (for a small scope), actually.
Granted, some on the list don’t add to coverage in the “Positive Team”, but as some of my previous employers have noted/built their empires on, any coverage is coverage. Not my style, but then, I don’t work for them anymore. Pepsi's choice to make it an exclusive marketing story to online journos (in the Stuart Elliott/NYTimes vein of MSM pitching), and a revamp of a 100+ year-old brand logo and its evolution in the physical form of cans (would’ve LOVED to have that collection in my office!), probably means that Pepsi is pretty happy with what they got: a bunch of marketing geeks who reach a larger group of marketing geeks (as I said before, myself included) to talk about it. Word of Mouth, baby!
So what does this mean?
More importantly, many folks who really have no interest in writing about Pepsi now have a reason to, and Pepsi's (attempting) to keep the buzz going using the tools that Social Media people use, like FriendFeed. They’ve created an online community called the Pepsi Cooler (hehe, ‘cooler’, get it? For soda pop, and ‘cause it’s cool!).
The Interwebs are a superlative communication stage, but you already knew that. It's efficient (fast, cheap-ish), effective (you’re reading this, right?) and scalable (start with 25 influencers, and let them grow the buzz for you). However, now that Social Media is here, it's become even more so. The ‘Net is now a launch pad for global relationships between brands and their consumers, as well as their stakeholders/critics.
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