Pepsi’s “opt out” of the Super Bowl and “opt in” to Social Media Is A Game Winner.
Sure, with over 90 million viewers the Super Bowl is the one of the most watched events on the planet. Its commercials have become an essential part of Super Bowl appeal and folklore. Super Bowl spots generate more buzz than the half time show spectaculars. Last week Nielsen released a study that shows more viewers like watching the ads than they do the game by a margin of 51 to 49%! Even in a challenging economic environment and at $2.5 to $3.0 million per :30, CBS sold out its Super Bowl inventory of 60+ commercial slots in record time. As a long time advertising guy who has been part of all this commercial fun and frenzy since Super Bowl I, I readily admit that I too eagerly awaited the 2010 commercial line up and the subsequent debate over the hits and misses. (For the most part this year’s crop was disappointing, but that’s another story) Nevertheless, there will always be a market and demand for Super Bowl advertising stardom. That’s not in question.
So, What’s The Big Deal?
After 23 consecutive years of paying big dollars to air some of the best Super Bowl spots ever, Pepsi’s decision to opt out as a Super Bowl sponsor when Coca Cola stayed in, was big headline grabbing news. It certainly was the number one topic of discussion among the students taking my USC graduate school advertising strategy class. So, we decided to apply some Asset-Based Thinking and look for the “teaching moments” in all of this media hype. The more important story that emerges with even bigger implications lies in what Pepsi is doing in lieu of spending all that Super Bowl cash. Pepsi turned the deficits and problems associated with pulling out of the Super Bowl into brand assets and opportunities by implementing a smart, creative, values based marketing program.
The Refresh Project: Fostering Innovation In Social Good Through Social Marketing
Throughout 2010 Pepsi will be doling out at least $20 million to fund great ideas that improve America’s communities. “Pepsi will fund ideas that will move the world forward in six categories: Health, Arts & Culture, Food & Shelter, The Planet, Neighborhoods and Education. People are encouraged to submit their ideas and cast a vote for their favorite projects at the Refresh Project website www.refresheverything.com.” There will be commercials to promote the project, substantial digital media, customized content created by media partners and extensive use of social media. A year long consumer engagement program that Pepsi hopes will become a key element of the Brand’s relationship with people and demonstrate that doing good is also good for business.
A Very Smart Brand Building Decision.
The Pepsi brand has established a reputation for thinking differently and aligning itself with the exuberance of youth, upbeat messaging and being ahead of the communications curve. Pepsi’s Super Bowl side step and concurrent social media plunge hit the mark in six important ways:
- Pulling out of the Super Bowl is a provocative way for Pepsi to question conventional wisdom and very much in line with its brand values. The brand’s absence generated as much, if not more, coverage and discussion than usually afforded the actual commercials.
- Their opt-out is in sync with current and emerging consumer values of responsible consumption and spending. Meaning matters as much as money and much more than hype.
- Pepsi’s opt –in to Social Media is recognition that it understands and values the new way people connect and communicate.
- By aggressively embracing cause marketing with a significant financial commitment ($20 Million+) Pepsi tangibly demonstrates a respect for and commitment to corporate social responsibility. This resonates with youth and shows that Pepsi is willing to do what it takes to deliver on that promise.
- The Pepsi Refresh Project is a powerful delivery of the Brand’s new global campaign theme… “Every generation refreshes the world. Now it’s your turn.” (I posted an earlier commentary on the Pepsi campaign) The Refresh Project provides the delivery system for people to bring this theme to life in their own way.
- Pepsi is trading a perishable advertising message for a sustainable communications platform upon which a wide array of people engagements can be developed, grow and take on a life of their own.
The Medium (or absence of it) Is the Message.
Having an advertising presence in the Super Bowl carries with it a certain cachet and gravitas. Participating as an advertiser “says something” about a brand or company’s importance, resources and creativity. The message delivered can range from being a fleeting moment of creative fame or flop to becoming an institutionalized part of one of America’s most beloved and iconic sporting events. Pepsi certainly has become part of the Super Bowl sponsor elite so its decision to opt out spoke volumes about the Pepsi Brand. Here’s what it said.
Pepsi is….
- Bold enough to move from being one of the “usual suspects” expected to show up on Super Bowl Sunday to being the “exceptional exception” that people seek out and personally engage with all year.
- Has the confidence to trade the immediate, center stage brand buzz of a spectacular event for an on-going, meaningful conversation that builds a sustained shared experience.
- Proud to share and live its brand values through the values and passions of other people.
This quote from Lee Clow, the legendary chief creative office of Pepsi’s ad agency, TBWA Worldwide sums it well.
Our idea was that this year we’d try to shift the marketing and communications to something that’s truly walking the walk. The goal is to develop a mechanism for young people to create ideas to make things better that will ultimately become part of the global behavior of the brand.
The “P” In Pepsi Stands For People
All of this reaffirms my belief that for companies and brands to survive and thrive in the future they must value people as asset and embrace a transparent and ongoing People strategy as the fifth pillar of the marketing mix….right along side Product, Price, Place and Promotion. My article from a few months ago, “From Mad Man To Twitterholic”, describes how Social Media has fundamentally changed the game on Madison Avenue. What we’re seeing with the Pepsi Refresh Project and their exit from the Super Bowl is a manifestation of these systemic changes and a sign of exciting and positive things to come. Trust, Transparency and Truth are the new currency of marketing. The Pepsi Refresh Project spends the Pepsi brand currency very wisely. By the way, is anyone talking about the Coke commercials?
Oh yeah. Super Bowl XLIV turned out to be one hell of a game….much better than the commercials. Kudos to the Saints. Congratulations to the winning spirit of the people of New Orleans.
Can’t wait until next year!
VALUES ARE THE KEY TO BUILDING VALUE
In previous posts I covered highlights from the outstanding line-up of thought leaders who spoke at The World Business Forum, 2009. (An Afternoon Of Concern and Contrast at The World Business Forum) One of the big observations that came out of the conference concerned an enlightened view of profit that encompasses both hard and soft assets.
More and more of today’s CEO’s now see a three tiered metric of profit as essential to building a strong and sustainable company. Dollar profit for fiscal sustainability. Emotional Profit of company stakeholders for a sustainable corporate culture and ethos. Greater Good Profit that extends benefits beyond the company for sustainable connected communities.
Now there is a study that seems to confirm that this enlightened profit perspective may do a lot more than just make a company CEO feel good. Valuing and building soft assets can actually be the key to delivering even better financial results and a healthier, stronger company. Recent research shows that CEOs who make it their business to place a higher priority on stakeholders’ interests and well-being rather than a relentless pursuit of delivering dollar profit come out on top.
The research,entitled Unrequited Profit: How Stakeholder and Read More
HOW SOCIAL MEDIA IS CHANGING MADISON AVENUE
No, I’m not Don Draper from Mad Men. But I’m an ad guy. I teach advertising in the grad school at USC and, yes, I am a twitterholic, @hankwasiak.
My career in advertising started in the Mad Men era and I am fortunate to still be doing what I love at The Concept Farm, a very cool creative company located on .85 acres in the heart of Chelsea in New York City. I’ve gone from a Mad Man to a Happy Farmer and along the way have lived through just about every shift and change in the advertising business over the past five decades.
And, coincidentally I’m right in the middle of putting together a syllabus for my class, picking a text book, and selecting case studies. It became obvious pretty quickly that the way business schools teach advertising has not yet caught up with actuality and, in many ways, is a metaphor for the mindset of Madison Avenue today. All of this has mashed up in to a point of view and perspective on where social media is taking the advertising business.
The Times They Are a Changing — Fast
Unlike the conventional doom and gloom Read More
A potpourri of international CEOs, a Nobel prize winner, management visionary and Bill Clinton.
The bloggers hub got off to a slow start the morning of day 2 due in part to a tasty and lively bloggers dinner the night before. Nevertheless, we were treated to another action packed day capped off by an address by Bill Clinton.
Globalization 2.0 – An Interdependent Economic and Ecological Geo-System
The first part of the day lived up to its billing…International Insights. The morning was rich with non-stop presentations, perspectives and insights from a wonderful cross section of top executives from some of the biggest and best global powerhouse companies.
Among them:
Roger Agnelli – CEO of Vale, Brazil
Morris Chang – CEO of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing
Peter Voser – CEO of Shell,
Dennis Nally – CEO of Price Waterhouse Coopers
These guys are good! And, one blindingly obvious observation. They were all guys. Irene Rosenfeld, the CEO of Kraft who would present in the afternoon, was the sole female featured corporate executive addressing the Forum. The glass ceiling endures. (More about that in a future article)
These common themes permeated their presentations:
Unprecedented Inter-connectedness and Co-dependence
Glimmers of Improvement and Movement
A Permanently Changed (for the better) Financial Game
China Rising, Rising and Rising
Emerging Markets As Read More
The sky is falling….maybe
The beginning of the afternoon at the World Business Forum can best be summed up as a sobering barrage of the pitfalls, perils, and problems ahead of us. David Rubenstein, founder of the Carlyle Group, the world’s largest private equity firm, presented a non-stop litany of facts to drive home his admonition that “Just because the recession will be ‘over’ soon doesn’t mean it’s all going to be OK.” His command of the numbers and their implications was simultaneously amazing and numbing
Then Jeffrey Sachs gave us on a macro view of the unprecedented challenges we face as a result of living in a totally interconnected world, a planet bursting at the seams and not able to sustain itself, a US political system and governance gone awry over the past 25 years, and America’s ever dimming presence and influence.
Whew. Do we have anything to look forward to? Hopefully.
Two Asset-Based Thinking takeaways:
Vigilance is Virtue – There still are tough times ahead. Consolidate your assets…personal, relational and situational…so you’re ready to face them.
Cooperation and Collaboration on a global scale will be core drivers of a better future. No man is an island…positive, inter-dependent relationships are valued assets.
T. Boone Pickens: Building Read More
Sitting in the front row in the Bloggers Hub at The World Business Forum. Wired, ready to go and surrounded by 50 of the best bloggers on the planet. A bit intimidating. These are some of the most savvy social media folks around, smart thinkers, great writers and they type a lot faster than me.
Undaunted, I’ve put on my Asset-Based Thinking lenses and will be viewing the conference with an eye towards how speakers address positive change and momentum. I’ll also be drawing on the energy and support of my fellow bloggers.
Some Asset-Based Thinking take-aways from the morning session.
Setting The Stage
Les Hinton, CEO of the Dow Jones Company summed up the past year with a quote. “If you ride through hell, you don’t stop.” He advised the audience to be vigilant and “keep on riding” since there are still challenges ahead. It’s not over yet. He was simultaneously optimistic about focusing on the future, the importance of small business and sticking to what business does best. Creating value!
Bill George & How Crisis Shapes Leaders
Bill George, from Harvard, delivered a personal and practical talk on “Leading In A Crisis” based on his excellent book, “7 Lessons For Leading In A Crisis”. Read More
Positive Social Media Adrenaline Amps Up Business Events
Reporting live on Day 1 as a featured blogger at the World Business Forum (#wbf09) at Radio City Music hall in NYC. A beautiful day in the Big Apple for a Big Idea business conference.
Bloggers Hub Buzz
Even before the speeches begin one of the event’s unique features is generating a great deal of positive chatter. The event organizers, HSM get a big Asset-Based Thinking shout out for creating the Bloggers Hub. It is a state of the art resource placed right in the middle of the action that houses about 50 featured bloggers providing us with full access to everything happening at the event. The bloggers hub is new and very smart communication idea for conferences, the benefits of which are apparent even at this early stage.
Bloggers Hub Benefits That I See
Facilitates a friendly, open platform for bloggers to provide real time updates, commentary and coverage of the speeches of some very smart and influential leaders.
Serves as a micro-community of a diverse group of bloggers to connect around a common interest…live reporting and disseminating information of significance…what I call “Content of Consequence”
Creates an environment of mutually supportive and connected energy that feeds on Read More
Creating this post has inspired me to borrow and slightly change a famous Tom Cruise line from the film, Jerry Maguire. “Show Me The Assets” That will be the focus and lens through which I’ll be creating my blog posts at next week’s World Business Forum. Asset-Based Thinking In Action
The World Business Forum brings together thought leaders, business gurus and legendary CEOs to address critical issues facing businesses today. There will be about 5000 attendees from all over the world. I will be one of about 50 people designated as “some of the best business bloggers” embedded right in the middle of all the action. There will be a Bloggers Hub complete with high speed internet access and all the electronic bells and whistles we’ll need to report live from the conference.
Big Agenda Items
As with past Forums, the two day event will be held on the big stage at Radio City Music Hall and it will very likely yield some interesting ideas and provocative headlines. We expect this year’s event to be a bit more intense since it comes a full year after the financial and economic mess that washed over the world. The usual suspects of Read More
Asset-Based Thinking in action highlights ABT being practiced in every day life and the lessons learned. Getting ready for the World Business Forum
