This is kind of a big deal, and may be one of the first mass market attempts of strategic use of Social Media by a major brand. Pepsi appears to be running a textbook engagement campaign instead of a traditional mass market television campaign for the 2010 Superbowl (via Springwise):
Pepsi has reportedly set aside USD 20 million to fund a variety of community projects across America. Rather than simply donating to existing charities, however, it will be inviting consumers to suggest and vote on the projects it funds. Pepsi will hold contests every month for 10 months beginning in January. The first will begin Jan. 13, when consumers will have 10 days to submit ideas “that make us think, inspire us and ignite participation,” according to a report on GigaOm. Toolkits for developing an application will reportedly be made available online starting this week. Ideas will be accepted in categories including health, arts and culture, food and shelter, the planet, neighbourhoods and education. After the 10-day submission period, contributed ideas will be opened up for public voting, and the top projects will win awards of USD 5,000, USD 25,000, USD 50,000 or USD 250,000. Thousands of projects will get funded, likely with additional resources from Pepsi’s retail and other partners, according to an AP report. Similar in many ways to Google’s Project 10 to the 100th contest, the effort is part of Pepsi’s “Refresh Everything” campaign, which launched about a year ago with the tagline, “Every generation refreshes the world.”
Pepsi Refresh – at refresheverything.com – will go live on January 13, 2010.
It will be interesting to see the ROI (if it can even be measured!) on a $20m social campaign as compared to the half-dozen 30-second television spots they’ve run in prior years.
Tags: Advertising, campaign, crowdsourcing, footbal, NFL, Pepsi, Pepsico, Pepsico Inc., Refresh Everything, social good, social media, Super Bowl, Superbowl, USD
