That's some good PR.
Pepsi's Josh Karpf, Pepsi's senior manager/digital media communications, talked about the effort at a social media conference in New York last week. The audience gave him a big thumbs up. Pepsi will invest $20M in its "Refresh Project," where people can vote and direct Pepsi to fund non-profits, businesses and individuals with the best ideas to improve society. The program is part of Karpf's and Peps'’s plan to establish close relationships with consumers. He told the audience that Pepsi wants to "move impressions to connections." Best of luck.
The average Super Bowl spot bills in the $2.8M range. The investment doesn't have the same impact that it once did, when there wasn't such an abundance of media options. There is just too much noise and clutter surrounding the Big Game. Pepsi is bound to get a larger return on its investment with the Refresh Project rather than on the pricey Super Bowl.
On the flip side of the coin, the Focus on the Family evangelical group has decided to shell out for an anti-abortion Super Bowl spot -- its debut Super Bowl ad. This blogger doubts that anybody at the Super Bowl party he will attend is going to pay much attention to an ad that will feature college football star Tim Tebow and his mother, Pam.
There is a time and place for everything. The Super Bowl, however, is not a good environment for the Focus ad themed, "Celebrate Family, Celebrate Life."
Focus says generous friends have given cash to buy the space. That provides little comfort to the 200 staffers that the Christian group has sliced from the payroll since 2008. Those generous friends could have forked over cash to keep those people working.