Pepsi recently announced that they would not be airing their annual Super Bowl commercial for the first time in twenty-three years. Instead, they are investing the money would usually spend on the expensive ad spots in an ambitious social media marketing campaign. Last year, the 2009 Super Bowl attracted an estimated 95.4 million viewers, with many viewers watching new commercials premiering as attentively as they are watching the actual game so this move by Pepsi is quite the gamble. Historically, Pepsi has spent tens of millions of dollars on TV and this decision and upcoming campaign could be one of the biggest events in the shift from broadcast to Internet media. As television viewership has gone down, Internet usage and social media are on the rise. According to ABC News, in the coveted 18-34 demographic, an estimated 85% now use social media so it is no surprise that more companies are diverting their resources to this new medium.
Pepsi’s new social campaign titled “The Pepsi Refresh Project” will launch on January 13th. This campaign will be driven by social media outlets and blogs and will encourage individuals and organizations to interact and pitch ideas that will “refresh” their community. The best ideas will be presented via social media and users will vote for their favorite projects. The winners will receive grants enabling them to carry out their community projects in categories like Health, Arts & Culture, Food & Shelter, The Planet, Neighborhoods, and Education will be considered. This campaign will ultimately fund thousands of community projects while promoting the Pepsi brand. As Pepsi prepares to launch there is no telling how this social media driven campaign will be received. If this gamble pays off for Pepsi I believe this ambitious new campaign delivered through social media could be the push that further redefines the marketing game.
Now that social media networks like Facebook have become a commonplace occurrence in our society and literally “everyone and their mother” has a profile, its no wonder that most major brands now utilize it to maintain an online presence and communicate their brand messages. Although there are hundreds of brands using Facebook, only a few have been able to utilize it to its fullest potential. IKEA is one of those brands.
Their campaign to promote the opening of its newest store in Mälmo has been wildly successful. It has been described as brilliant, smart yet simple, genius, and innovative. With a very small budget, Swedish agency Forsman & Bodenfors managed to start a Facebook campaign that was able to grow organically and transcend international boundaries on its own. By creating a basic profile for the store manager of the new store they uploaded images of IKEA showrooms from the new store to his photo albums over the course of two weeks. Those who became “friends” with Gustavsson were encouraged to tag themselves in the photos over products in the showroom images for a chance of winning that particular object. As word spread across Facebook and more people tagged the photo, the showroom images where subsequently shared on all their profiles, links, and newsfeeds with millions of people in Sweden, throughout Europe, and across the planet. Instead of simply placing a banner ad on various websites hoping for a connection, IKEA got people to personally promote IKEA on the biggest social networking platform around. Word of mouth advertising is considered the most effective and sharing on Facebook is the equivalent of word of mouth these days.
The newly redesigned website for Chado Advertising & Design has officially launched. This new site has been redesigned to have a new look similar to this blog, a flash slideshow showcasing recent work, and has additional content added. There are also links to all of Chado’s social media pages, more detailed case studies, team bios, and an added link to XCD, our cross cultural design social network. This new website is easier to navigate and has a new look more consistent with Chado Advertising & Design. Check it out at www.chado-design.com!
Although YouTube is still top dog for viewing online video Facebook continues to innovate and get results. By constantly adding new tools while increasing users they are living up to the hype. A recent cnet report based on Nielsen Video Census statistics has reported that facebook is now the third most popular place to view videos online behind YouTube and Hulu. With the popularity of viewing videos online grows along side social networking facebook has successfully merged the two innovative concepts and evolved into a one stop media portal.
In related news Chado has posted videos from past campaigns and they are available for viewing on Chado’s facebook fan page. To visit Chado’s fan page and view the newly uploaded videos click here.
