Sunday, October 5, 2008

Pepsi's consumer-centric strategy and reapplication


From my previous Pepsi blog entry, I mentioned that Pepsi is focusing on digital marketing. From this wonderful source, Harry Hui, Pepsi’s chief marketer for China said that Pepsi's global strategy is to become consumer-centric. Hui elaborated that for Pepsi's marketing direction, "the overall move is from Brand centric to consumer centric; projective to engaging; static to customized experiences; episodic contact to each communication is a link to the next; one-way to viral and community enabling."

They engaged the Chinese consumers by focusing on their target market's passions: music, sports and interactive.

I present two case studies from the same source. I have personal knowledge of the first one, but none about the second one - and it also surprised me. :)

1. Create an ad
Proximity (a digital marketing agency) presented during the IMMAP (Internet and Mobile Marketing Association of the Philippines) that in China, Pepsi ran a "create your own Pepsi commercial" contest.

Consumers create a script with actor Jay Chou as the main character. Then consumers choose the winner. The campaign was basically a website execution. the same source above revealted the contest stats. Amazing numbers:
  • 28,000 scripts received
  • 690,000 bulletin board posting
  • 5 million online participation/votes
The winning ad is here:


2. Appear on a can!
Pepsi China also ran an "appear on a can" contest. Same mechanics as the Philippine execution. As Hui elegantly put it, "we wanted to create youtube on a can."

The China stats were:
  • 3 million photos submitted
  • 163 million votes
  • 7.5 million bulletin board messages
  • Pepsi also managed to get many celebrity endorsements for free, since they wanted to appear on the can.
It's quite amazing to see Pepsi rolling out the "appear on a can" initiative in the Philippines. Will we see the "create an ad" campaign soon?
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