After two decades of advertising in Super Bowl matchups Peps

After two decades of advertising in Super Bowl matchups, PepsiCo opted out of the Big Game in 2010 and redirected funds into a social networking campaign called “Refresh Everything”. The campaign, which harnessed the power of Facebook and blogs to offer financial grants for customer-led community projects, generated hundreds of thousands of Facebook friends and awarded millions to proposals winners. Devise an advertising campaign that uses interactive social media to attract audiences to a popular brand. Create a relevant crowdsourcing activity for the campaign. What award will your campaign offer to consumer participants? What type of agencies and support organizations will be involved in coordinating the campaign? In what ways might social media help your message break through media clutter?

Solution

social campaigns often assign tasks to groups of consumers, enthusiasts, or experts—a technique known as crowdsourcing. The idea is to get consumers interacting with brands in highly engaging situations. These campaigns often ask consumers to build the brand by making recommendations, and by getting friends to join in. Big rewards attract consumers and retain them for months. Social media campaigns may require input from interactive agencies and creative boutiques. Research has shown that the word-of-mouth buzz generated in social contexts results in long lasting impressions. Some advertisers view social media as a cure to media clutter, primarily because of its potential for building virtual communities.