Pepsi pulls ads from Superbowl to invest in Social Media
18. Dec, 2009 
2 Comments
It’s a weekly discussion around here, about how most advertising is intrusive and unwanted, except for Super Bowl Sunday ads. Well that’s been shot to pieces! Pepsi has announced that after 23 years of super bowl ads, they are bowing out of January 2010′s Superbowl and will instead spend that money on a social media campaign called Pepsi Refresh.
Pepsi Refresh will go live January 13,2010. Pepsi Refresh is a place where people can list projects ranging from feeding the homeless to teaching people to read. These projects will be funded by Pepsi and other companies that wish to contribute towards these projects. This social media project will use twitter, facebook, and related services in order to invite followers and friends in to help boost the popularity of individual campaigns.
Let’s see.. spending $3 million PLUS production for a single 30 second ad or… teaching children to read. It looks to me like it’s money well spent. In fact, I’d venture to say that this project will go a lot further in reach and branding than a couple of minutes of advertising on television.
Pepsi spent over $33 Million last year promoting Pepsi, Gatorade, and Cheetos. $15 Million was for Pepsi branded products alone. These numbers do not include production costs, which can easily be a few million dollars. Pepsi has budgeted $20 Million for the Pepsi Refresh social media campaign.
2010 will see a huge shift from traditional advertising (television, radio, phone books and newspaper) to digital advertising. (Internet, Mobile Media, Local Search and Social Media)
BizNdex is here at the right time to help small businesses make the transition from traditional to digital advertising and marketing during a time where it’s no longer acceptable to just throw money at media. Digital media gives SMB’s the ability to track the leads, sales, and brand building in real time.
- Tony Darrick Baker
Keep this stuff coming this is awesome!