hello delight

By now, you've probably heard the news that Pepsi has decided to skip the Super Bowl and instead focus on the Pepsi Refresh project.  It's heralded as a boon to new media.

But it's probably not.

After all, there is little in the way of awarness problems in the cola industry for Pepsi.  Year after year, Pepsi and Coke maintain quite stable share points.  The 24th running of a Super Bowl TV ad isn't going to add too much new awareness for the brand.  Conversely, not being there is probably not going to displace Pepsi in too many people's minds either and cause them to switch to another brand.  Would a non-drinker start drinking Pepsi post their Super Bowl ad?  Maybe, I dunno.

The big switch here that is interesting to me is the outspoken commitment to a social responsibility project.

There are two key things I'll be watching with the Refresh project as it unfolds: 1) Logistics, 2) Backlash.

The Refresh project is not a campaign, per se, and campaigns are what agencies and brands do best.  It's a year long committment to grant-writing and acting as a juror.  These are not core competencies of agencies or Pepsi.  As with all grants, a vocal minority will be ever-present.  I'm very interested to see how Pepsi et al deal with it.

The backlash could be nasty.  Just as buying RED t-shirts at Gap doesn't fix Africa, buying carbonated soda water doesn't fix much either.  Prepare for an onslaught of critisicm from those concerned with the origins of the money, the mass-market commercial ties, and the general authenticity cries.

I've been fairly critial of cause marketing in the past because it's not strategic.  This appears to be case-in-point, from my vantage point.  Reputation benefits have PR value, and can help to build brand equity, but they're difficult to sustain when they appear to not be working.  It's not easy to back out of cause marketing and shift your message around.  With as big an investment as this, I'll also be watching for the back-pedalling to begin.