This is one of the coolest examples of todays brand behavior: The Pepsi Refresh Everything Project. See, what they say about themselves: “We’re looking for people, businesses, and non-profits with ideas that will have a positive impact. Look around your community and think about how you want to change it.” and check it out. Simply click HERE for all the necessary information.
FYI: The Pepsi Refresh Project Round 1 Voting and Round 2 Submissions are NOW OPEN! It’s time to start campaigning for the ideas you like, voting for the ideas that will make the world better, and submitting your ideas for Round 2!
If you have any comments or suggestions please email Rob Schwartz.
AUDIENCE BEHAVIOR There’s no such thing as a captive audience. Gone are the days of neat and discrete moments in time where advertisers talked to target audiences. Today’s is a culture in constant motion. And the dizzying array of platforms, constant connectivity and ever-increasing speed of information has left the ad industry out of sync with its audience. People don’t live in quarterly campaigns, nor do they distinguish communication channels. They expect faster and constant communication with their brands across more media platforms and conversations. Every month, week, day, on the hour. It’s now about how fast brands can move, how relevant they can be and what they can offer in the here and now. There is a always need for “slow” and carefully crafted brand strategies and stories. But, with culture in constant motion there is also a need for marketers to be quick and nimble, so they can find opportunities where their brands can tap into cultural conversations that are part of people’s lives.
BRAND BEHAVIOR Colleen DeCourcy, Chief Digital Officer for TBWA\Worldwide, challenges marketers to “advertise at the speed of culture”— making the case for designing constant communications at the intersections of product, culture, news and events. It’s a fleet of micro-initiatives as ongoing communication programs with your audience in response to culture 365 days a year. It’s about being opportunistic and leveraging key moments with brand relevance. It’s about owning the current conversation to generate faster and more frequent communication points. It’s a new form of CRM using a mix of planned, anticipative and reactive micro initiatives.
PLANNED initiatives are created around identified cultural moments relevant to your brand. By asking “Who do you think is refreshing music?” Pepsi leveraged the cultural conversation around this year’s Coachella Music Fest with their RefreshMusic Twitter feed featuring Thievery Corporation’s Rob Myers as a guest tweeter. By putting a unique spin on the concert for music lovers, Pepsi is not only letting tweeters experience the festival in new ways, but is also bringing the brand idea “refresh everything” to life.
ANTICIPATED is scenario based planning that requires marketers to be smart enough to see the cultural conversation and be ready to act upon it. Visa’s seemingly “real-time” ad, celebrating Michael Phelps’s Olympic record eight gold medals, proved the brand recognized the Game’s most talked about story. The TV spot had footage of Phelps’s previous wins literally moments after his record-breaking performance, helping Visa go beyond being a sponsor and become a part of the conversation surrounding the Games.
REACTIVE is being nimble enough to surprise and delight your audience by your brand tapping into the zeitgeist. In President Obama’s acceptance speech he declared the family’s intention of getting a dog. The next day, Pedigree began crafting a response. A day later an ad in USA Today urged the President to adopt: “We’d love to help you fulfill your first campaign promise.” Pedigree’s quick actions helped place them in the cultural conversation regarding the President’s pet decision.
Fast Company magazine’s inaugural ranking of the 100 Most Creative People in Business puts Jonathan Ive, SVP of Industrial Design at Apple, in the top spot; Lee Clow, TBWA’s Global Director of Media Arts is named #32. In a press release Fast Company magazine said: “In an industry that tends to spit out anyone with a speck of gray hair, the brain behind the Energizer Bunny, the Taco Bell Chihuahua, and Adidas’s ‘Impossible is Nothing’ campaign continues to be one of the most creative forces in the game.Last year, as global director of TBWA\Worldwide, he [Lee Clow] helped the Omnicom-owned agency lure a phenomenal roster of new business, including Pepsi and the global Visa account.”
“Creativity cannot be reduced to a formula,” says Fast Company editor Robert Safian. “There will no doubt be controversy over how we ended up with these 100 individuals, why certain names are missing, why one person is ranked higher – or lower – than someone else. But there is a perspective in our list: Taken in its entirety, it’s a snapshot of the range and depth of creativity across our business landscape – a remarkable and perhaps surprising source of strength in these times of turmoil.”
The list includes engineers from Facebook and Google, movie directors and fashion designers, architects and inventors. “We emphasized those who creativity addresses a larger issue – from the future of our energy infrastructure to the evolution of philanthropy to next-generation media and entertainment,” explain the Fast Company editors, in the introduction to the list. “And while we couldn’t see how lauding Steve Jobs would show much creativity, we also couldn’t ignore the outsized impact Apple has had on our business culture. That’s why Apple’s chief designer heads our list at No. 1.”
Throughout the history of Pepsi, the brand has always been connected with the energy of young people and those who think young.
Today, we see that energy changing. It is focused not around superficiality, but around consciousness, depth and having a positive impact on the world. As a society we are facing the greatest challenges of our lifetime, but like many in our culture we believe together we can make a difference.
The world is ready to “be moved” both emotionally and in a new direction. And Pepsi’s not afraid to help inspire it.
If you have any comments or suggestions please email Rob Schwartz.
The new American President Barack Obama succeeded in the election with the simple idea of CHANGE. Doing things differently and sticking to his basic idea. Smart brands didn’t follow the convention to simply welcome the new administration, they listened to the audience on this big day and entertained the world by commenting on the positive feelings of a whole nation in their brand-specific perspective.
See what Pepsi has done on the day change came to Washington D.C..
If you have any comments or suggestions please email Rob Schwartz.
Comedy Central is running a commercial for South Park’s upcoming season that parodies Pepsi’s “Refresh Everything” ad campaign – except instead of the Pepsi logo, they’re using the characters’ heads and inane phrases. Isn’t imitation the greatest form of flattery?
On New Years Eve Pepsi aired a spot welcoming 2009 with love, joy, optimism and lots of positive energy. As it’s a brand that enjoys entertaining its audience, the creative team has produced a 2:42 minutes behind the scenes. Enjoy.
Key in the Media Arts thinking is the understanding, that media strategy is an essential part of the creative process. During the 2009 Grammy Awards Pepsi ran an ad tied to one specific moment during broadcast. As adage.com reported, the Pepsi ad with Will.i.am appeared immediately after the singer will be on screen. “Typically, you do spot and you just try to find a bunch of different places [for it to run]. That’s the tommy-gun approach.” said Rob Schwartz, executive creative director of TBWA\Chiat\Day Los Angeles in AdAge. “This is more precise, and more and more, we are looking to do deeper messages and have them in places where there’s more relevance.”
Fast Company
Throughout the history of Pepsi, the brand has always been connected with the energy of young people and those who think young.