Is social media better than a 60-second ad spot that costs around $3 million. Pepsi thinks so which is why they chose to launch a viral campaign at RefreshEverything.com instead of advertising in the Super Bowl this year. Pepsi plans to give away $20 million in grant money to fund projects in various categories. People can go there now to submit ideas and vote on other ideas.
From the Yahoo News article:
The problem, say marketing experts, is mixing the medium with the message. “The Super Bowl is just too extravagant for something like this,” says Lee Clow, chief creative officer and global director of media arts at TBWA Worldwide, the agency that created Pepsi’s campaign. “It’s seems like a contradiction to say you’re going to set aside $20 million in marketing dollars for a worthy cause, then turn around and spend $12 million on two 60-second spots for the Super Bowl. Couldn’t that money be put to better use?”
It’ll be interesting to see how skipping on the Super Bowl TV advertising will alter Pepsi’s sales as compared to the previous years. One thing is for certain is that large companies are starting to see the value of social media marketing and will continue to pull their ad dollars away from traditional advertising to turn over to search engine & social media marketing.
