Make friends AND money?

02 Aug Make friends AND money?

Posted at 02:00h in Pepsi sales, results, social media by
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I’m guessing that most of you know about the Pepsi Refresh Project. Instead of spending millions on a Super Bowl spot, they elected to kick off a Social Media Campaign where folks offer ideas to help others, viewers vote on those ideas and then the winners are funded by Pepsi. Interesting gamble. (Check out the page with the finalists for July)

According to Financial Times, it looks like carbonated beverages use in the US is still dropping – and that includes Pepsi. Not too good. But perhaps the campaign has helped them keep from dropping further…anyone have an opinion on this one?

And good news for the company? Gatorade sales have picked up. Now, that’s a taste I never acquired.

1 Comment
  • Tiffany
    Posted at 19:06h, 06 August

    Pepsi Refresh, I can't say enough positive…

    As a marketer, I only wish I came up with it myself. This single campaign concept has so "effortlessly" included insurmountable and self-sustainable publicity and consumer involvement, what a dream. I read results reporting their website traffic has increased upwards of 800%! Although eMarketer reported that following the super bowl, Coke's number of Facebook fans increased by 390,000 and Pepsi by only 300,000. But fans are probably not Pepsi's ROI measurement, the depth of those relationships would be more beneficial.

    Pepsi has run Super Bowl commercials for the past 23 years, I'm glad to see when they stray from that presedence it's done in a well thought and explosive manner. Rather than a singular Bowl spot that provides a limited, if any, jump in sales; this strategic move forces the brand top of mind (whether your buying it or not). I'm certain as marketing communications textbooks are revised during the next year or two or five, this will become a well published case study (wow, another perk!).

    May be worth mentioning, we're still yet to see how this campaign will be concluded. There's a bit of scrutiny and question regarding the authenticity and Pepsi coming through on their grants. As well as some "down-low" negative PR on problems with their application database and security issues. In any case, you have to dig to find that info, so accolades to Pepsi for handling that diligently.

    Long-story-short, it may not be fair to look at the stock prices and immediate sales in reference to this marketing strategy. By definition this is/has been successful in generating interest for the product and brand. As well as building relationships with it's consumer AND Coke's!