by Caitlin Feigenbaum- Campaign Manager
February 8, 2010
Advertisers can spend over $10 million on buying television time during the biggest football game of the year and that isn’t even counting the cost it takes to produce the spot itself. Sometimes, it’s the majority of their budget for the entire year, all for only a minute or two of face time in front of viewers (who are most likely distracted by beer and socializing) or the chance to be voted #1 in USA Today’s Ad MeterSM poll. What if advertisers used that money for something else, something better?
So, in a daring act of altruism, Pepsi relinquished “their multi-decade, multi-million dollar Super Bowl opening ad position1” as well as other slots throughout the game and instead, offered everyone a chance to change the world. The gist is simple: Pepsi is offering $20 million in grants of varying sizes to individuals, groups, and organizations that have the most inspired idea with the most online supporters. Submissions started coming in mid-January and so far, there are 729 ideas in the running for a March 1 decision.
Pepsi has created a site called “Refresh Everything” to support this noble campaign: http://www.refresheverything.com/ where users can submit their ideas and/or vote on others’ proposals. The campaign has been viral for the most part, but Pepsi is still spending some bucks on TV commercials. As this is long running initiative, it will be interesting follow their advertising efforts and see which mediums they choose to utilize the most.
While some of the ideas are small, like sending Girl Scout cookies to our troops overseas, and some are larger in scope, like helping to provide free healthcare to those less fortunate, the point is that Pepsi is choosing to take the road less travelled. And that will make all the difference.
1 http://www.digitalbuzzblog.com/the-pepsi-refresh-project-social-campaign/
Learn More About the Pepsi Refresh Project:
http://www.refresheverything.com/how-it-works
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33797502
http://theinspirationroom.com/daily/2010/the-pepsi-refresh-project/