Tuesday, May 21, 2019

Advertising and Pepsi Refresh

fraternity Case Pepsi Can a Soda Re all(a)(prenominal)y Make the World a Better sic? This year, PepsiCo did something that shocked the advertise world. After 23 straight years of run ads for its flagship brand on the ace Bowl, it announced that the number-two soft potable maker would be absent from the Big Game. alone in the weeks booster cable up to Super Bowl XLIV, Pepsi was still the second-most discussed advertiser associated with the even offt. It wasnt so much what Pepsi wasnt doing that created such(prenominal)(prenominal) a stir as much as what it was doing.Rather than continuing with the same experienced messages of the past, focusing on the youthful nature of the Pepsi Generation, and using the same old mass-media channels, Pepsi is taking a major gamble by breaking new ground with its advertizing program. Its latest campaign, called Pepsi Refresh, represents a major departure from its old advancement efforts in two ways (1) The message centers on a theme of co rdial responsibility, and (2) the message is macrocosm delivered with a fat dose of sociable media. At the center of the campaign is the Pepsi Refresh Project.PepsiCo has committed to introduce $20 million in dispenses ranging from $5,000 to $250,000 to organizations and individuals with appraisals that give make the world a better place. The refresheverything . com Web billet greets visitors with the headline, What do you c be about? PepsiCo accepts up to 1,000 proposals each month in each of six antithetical areas health, arts and culture, food and shelter, the planet, neighborhoods, and education. Then crowdsourcing takes over, as consumers vote for their favorites. Pepsi awards the grants each month.One-third of the way by its one-year run, the family had funded more than 100 projects, giving approximately $5 million back to local communities. The company utter that the project was right on target to award the full $20 million by the reverse of the yearlong effort. I NTEGRATING DIGITAL THROUGHOUT THE PROMOTIONAL MIX The Pepsi Refresh campaign has been a innovational effort, in part because of its heavy use of affectionate media. PepsiCo is capitalizing on a growing tr finis in a way that no other major brand has done so far.The company is prompt to point out that Pepsi Refresh is not a social media add-on ilk almost others, where an ad simply directs mickle to a Web site for reasons that may or may not be relevant to the message. Nor is it a social media campaign as such, where the entire campaign takes place through social media. Rather, social media are the glue that holds together a truly integrated trade communications effort. Its not about digital as its own channel anymore, says Bonin Bough, director of digital and social media for PepsiCo. Its how do we infuse digital crossways all of our selling programs? For starters, although PepsiCo bypassed the Super Bowl, it is not ditching broadcast media. To the contrary, Pepsi is running spot ads on the main networks as well as 30 different cable channels. The ads ab initio informed community about the Pepsi Refresh campaign, directing them to the refresheverything. com site. But shortly after the first grants were awarded, ads began bring out projects that had been funded. Traditional media efforts extend to 10 print publications as well. And PR plays a role through agreements such as the one with NBC Universal for paid pitches on the Today show.But this campaign underscores a shift in how PepsiCo is spending its advertising dollars. According to CEO Indra Nooyi, the worlds number two soft drink seller is shifting as much as one-third of its selling budget to inter sourive and social media. This move involves not only the Pepsi brand but also Mountain Dew, Doritos, Sobe, and PepsiCos other brands. Certainly, PepsiCo is not alone in the trend toward digital and social media marketing. But analysts point out that its approach, moving off from high-profile spots in favor of heavy spending on a digitally focused social responsibility campaign, is both compelling and risky. I applaud Pepsi for embracing social media and technology, said Marc Lucas, an advertising executive. On the flip side, I think its very bold to not be in a place where you know youre going to have an audience. The refresheverything. com Web site is just one contribution of the brands online efforts. PepsiCo is spreading the message through the big networks, such as Facebook and Twitter, and even partnering with them for advertising opportunities. For example, Pepsi Refresh held the lead ad position on Facebook during the Super Bowl.Pepsi has also partnered with Hulu to sponsor its first master series, the reality show If I Can Dream. It amplifies an advertising campaign by making it something masses let the cat out of the bag about, more of a social conversation, said Jean-Paul Colaco, senior vice president for advertising at Hulu. PepsiCo even partnered with Spin ma gazine, music festival South by Southwest, and two Indie bands in a Web-based rivalry where music lovers could vote for their favorite. Metric beat out Broken Social Scene for a $100,000 grant that it gave to the Womens Funding Network.As another component of the integrated campaign, the company has not shied away from using fame endorsers. Through clever network spot ads that place celebrities inside a life-sized, threedimensional laptop made of tagboard, Kevin Bacon appeals to the great unwashed to vote for his cause, half dozenDegrees. org. He is quick to point out that this has nothing to do with the cult trivia game, Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon. Rather, he proposes using a $250,000 grant to hand out good cards that people poop use to donate to any of more than a million different charities.But Bacon goes on to explain that the creator of SixDegrees comes from the social networks of good card recipients. They buy more good cards and pass them on to others, and as social netw orking works its magic, that $250,000 grows into millions. Among various other celebrities, Pepsi has also recruited Demi Moore NFL players Mark Sanchez, DeMarcus Ware, and Drew Brees and NASCAR veterans Jeff Gordon, Dale Earn unattackablet Jr. , and Jimmie Johnson to apply for grants and act as spokespersons for the project.These celebrities are vying for votes to award grants to such organizations as the Girls Education and Mentoring Service, the American Cancer Society, and the Brain aneurysm Foundation. PepsiCo is also getting its message out to consumers at the point of purchase. Cans, bottles, and multipacks feature updated graphics that minimize an all lowercase Pepsi logo written vertically and highlights a new Pepsi brand mark a huge circle with swaths of red, white, and blue. That symbol replaces any o in Pepsis packaging and promotional materials.Thus, both Do Some Good and Doing Good 101 each carry four of the new Pepsi circles. To draw people into retailer outlets to s ee the pointof- purchase (POP) materials and hopefully buy its soft drinks, Pepsi has partnered with Foursquare, the social network that connects people through GPS in real time. Foursquare members are directed to Pepsi retailers and given offers as an incentive for them to visit. DOING WELL BY DOING GOOD Despite the growth of cause-related marketing, PepsiCos effort is perhaps the first example of a major brand making social responsibility the main theme of its campaign, rather than an add-on.This does not downplay the efforts of companies like Target, which has given $273 million to local schools since 1997 through its RedCard program. But PepsiCos effort is built around a theme that drives the concept of doing good as much as it drives the brand. Coca- Colas response to Pepsi Refresh, donating a dollar to Boys and Girls Clubs of America each time a visitor to Cokes Facebook page shares a virtual Coke gift, illustrates how most advertisers causerelated marketing efforts are periph eral to other advertising activities. Nooyi brings the centrality of Pepsis socially responsible message into perspective.The Pepsi Refresh Project is a platform, but at the end of the day, what we are doing is awarding the grants, we are enabling connections. Its having a catalytic effect on people who are actually embracing these organizations. So, were not only benefiting the person who authorized the grant, were benefiting the people who are the recipients of the outcome of that idea. With schools, for instance, its not just one classroom thats benefited. Its all the kids who testament be able to go to that classroom. And there have been people who have worked so hard to get this money that others have stepped in and matched the money they receive.Projects funded thus far are too legion(predicate) to list. But they include more than high-profile efforts like the celebrity campaigns. Many awards are being given to day-after-day people just trying to improve their own little c orners of the world. Calvin Cannon received $5,000 for Clothe the N. A. K. E. D. stroll Date, his venture to sponsor low-income, upstanding dudes in Shelbyville, Tennessee, by paying for their tuxedo rentals for the prom. Jeanne Acutanza from Kirkland, Washington, got $5,000 for her childrens school so that it could manage a sustainable garden and give the harvest to local food banks.And the Associates of Redlands Bowl received $25,000 to sustainment performing arts in the community of Redlands, California. Im proud of every idea were supporting, but its the simplicity of these ideas that is so innovative, says Nooyi. You would never have thought that one childlike thing could bring about a big change in the community. IN SEARCH OF THE devoted GRAIL All this cutting edge promotion and the effort to change the world are wonderful. But at the end of the day, PepsiCo has to sell soft drinks. After all, it is the fiftieth largest publicly held corporation in the serving 500.Pepsi is also the 23rd most valuable brand in the world according to Interbrand. If this experiment fails to support sales of its core brand, PepsiCo will no doubt abandon its innovative promotion efforts and return to its old ways. As one social marketer states, This is big, new, getting a lot of attention. Its impactful its innovative. What the industriousness is talking about now is, is this a gamble that was worth taking, in terms of a wind up in sales? Thats the holy grail. But PepsiCo remains extremely optimistic. In the first a couple of(prenominal) months of the campaign, the number of Facebook fans doubled.The company formerly got a Twitter tweet every five minutes or so. Now, it receives more tweets per minute than a person can read. But just what is the value of a Facebook or a Twitter fan? Although many advocates of social networking say questions like that are irrelevant, budget-strapped chief marketing officers want to see return on investment. Thats why Bough and his tea m have developed a scorecard that ties different elements of the Pepsi Refresh campaign back to the health of the brand. Using standard research methods, PepsiCo will be measuring whether or not this campaign merits the expense. come down or fail, many observers inside and outside PepsiCo will learn much from this first-of-its-kind social media and social responsibility campaign. Ana Maria Irazabal, director of marketing for PepsiCo, wants this campaign to dumbfound the model of the future. We want people to be aware that every time you drink a Pepsi you are actually supporting the Pepsi Refresh Project and ideas that are going to move this country forward. We may be the first to do something like this, but hopefully, were not the last. Questions for Discussion 1.Consider PepsiCos advertising throughout its history. (For a list of Pepsi slogans over the years, visit http//en. wikipedia. org/wiki/PepsiSlogans. ) Identify as many commonalities as possible across its various ad campa igns. How is this campaign consistent with PepsiCos brand image? 2. List all the promotional mix elements used in the Pepsi Refresh campaign. What grade would you give PepsiCo on integrating these elements into an integration marketing communications campaign? 3. Describe PepsiCos target audience. Is the Pepsi Refresh campaign consistent with that audience? . As completely as possible, analyze the campaign according to the steps listed in the chapter for developing effective marketing communication. 5. Will the Pepsi Refresh campaign be successful? Why or why not? Sources Natalie Zmuda, Pass or Fail, Pepsis Refresh Will Be Case for Marketing Textbooks, Advertising Age, February 8, 2010, p. 1 Stuart Elliott, Pepsi Invites the state-supported to Do Good, New York Times, January 31, 2010, p. B6 Elaine Wong, Pepsi Community Effort Finds Fans on Social Nets, Brandweek, June 8, 2010, accessed at www. brandweek. com.

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