Cola War: Pepsi Promotion

Over the last decades and since the 1990’s, Pepsi revitalized their advertising campaigns with celebrities from a wide range of fields. Besides, their attractive and inspiring website was a huge asset to the company as it not only presents the Pepsi products but also includes promotions games, music, and movie trailers.

Pepsi promotion for Pepsi’s Project Blue introduced the first commercial to be filmed in space.

Pepsi also reiterated their promotions with their new ads featuring

basketball superstar Shaquille O’Neal. The ad offers the buyer to earn points

that can be exchanged for Pepsi prizes. With the advent of the new

millennium, Pepsi confirmed their established promotions and advertisements

strategies Pepsi’s younger image is also aided by celebrities endorsement

touted by the teen market including Britney Spears,pink, Beyonce ,NSync,

along with popular rappers.

The company engaged in the popular Pepsi Challenge, and became the

National Football League’s official soft drink sponsor with Gatorade. For its

marketing campaign “dare for more” has succeed to have great soccer players

of the world such as Roberto Carlos,David Beckham,Ronaldinho,Totti

Pepsi slogans from 2008:

2008:	"Pepsi Stuff" Super Bowl Commercial (Justin Timberlake)
2008:	"Pepsi is #1" Тv commercial (Luke Rosin)
2008–present:	"Something For Everyone"
2009–present:	"Refresh Everything"/"Every Generation Refreshes the World"
2010–present:	"Every Pepsi Refreshes The World"
2011–present	"Summer Time is Pepsi Time"
2011–present	"Born in the Carolinas"
2012:	"Where there's Pepsi, there's music" – used for the 2012 Super Bowl commercial featuring Melanie Amaro
2012	"Live For Now"
2012	"Change The Game"
2012	"The Best Drink Created Worldwide"

PEPSI REFRESH PROJECT

We can't talk about Pepsi communication without mentioning the Pepsi refresh project. Indeed, PepsiCo is one of the first company to have used internet for its communiction and advertising.

The Pepsi refresh project became a reference in social media campaign after its launch in 2010. Let's have a look to this huge campaign, representing a rupture in Pepsi's strategy.

Pepsi has been acting in this project in coherence with its Modern, innovtive image as its archetype defines it. Indeed, Pepsi has spent less money promoting the brand in the super bowl very expensive ad and they have invested in social marketing to help communities. Just like Coca Cola, they are willing to prove they can help people in 8 different categories by improving local communities well-being. They invited people to submit their ideas that people would vote for; all that through social media. $20 million were given to support the wining ideas.

Passing from a traditional 23 years old super bowl ad to an innovative and without precedent campaign, Pepsi took a lot of risks investing in such a project with uncertain issues. But the positioning of the campaign ensured them a successful buzz on media, especially social media. The on-line and off-line media coverage was huge. Rare are the media who haven’t mentioned this initiative. From newspapers to magazines, from Facebook to radio, from YouTube to Blogs: every medium in every format have talked about the Pepsi Refresh project.

Each person concerned or who have heard of the project had something to share about it. The personal involvement about a cause, or the one of a close relative/friend would necessarily generate interest.

Even marketer/communicators seized the phenomenon, talking about it in study cases, making videos of it, and taking it as an example of innovation, of success or of branding.

The Refresh Project accomplished everything a social media program is expected to:

· Billion of ideas submitted

· 1000+ ideas selected

· Over 80 million votes were registered

· 3.5 million “likes” on the Pepsi Facebook page

· 60,000 Twitter followers.

In order o have an idea of what Pepsi Refresh Project grantees have accomplished, here are a quick overview of what the project has accomplished:

“68 Parks and playgrounds that have been built or improved
30 Prom outfits that have been donated to high school seniors who could not afford them
50 States that have voted for ideas in the Pepsi Refresh Project
108 Schools that have been improved
+/- 200 iPods/Smartboards that have been installed in classrooms
3,800 Animals that have been saved or treated
4,500 Donations in dollars raised in addition to Pepsi Refresh Project funding
23,000 Volunteers involved in the Project
1,000 Pajamas that have been donated to those in need
123,332 Miles grantees have traveled by foot, bike and skate on Pepsi Refresh Project-funded action trips
One million People impacted by grantees over the course of the Pepsi Refresh Project

3.2 million Dollars of additional funding leveraged”

The campaign had therefore a lot of success among people and among media, thanks to its innovative concept and the rupture with the traditional ad they were making each year at the same time. But the social media campaign has faced a lot of critics and skepticism from marketers and communicators who weren’t sure of the results for Pepsi even if they were amazed by its success.

Indeed, the only thing the campaign failed to do was sell Pepsi. Indeed, the brand lost 5% of its market share within the campaign period. It has proved that traditional advertising can't be totally replaced by social media; they are complementary.