Social media inside the echo chamber
Being fairly new to the social media scene from a business perspective (i.e. implementing social media for business), I hesitated about writing this post. Then I decided that I needed to… if only to, perhaps, offer a different perspective to a recent social media campaign.
This week the team at Edelman selected 25 bloggers to debut Pepsi’s new can design. Very exciting, right? Since I read Mack Collier’s, Chris Brogan’s, Shannon Paul’s and Valeria Maltoni’s blogs daily, I saw each one post their experience and perceptions day-by-day (in that order, which was interesting to me in and of itself). I am not sure who the other 21 bloggers are, but if I find out I’ll be sure to add on to this post with their experiences. (Apologies in advance to the other 21, but I haven’t had the time to sort through everything on Twitter.)
Mack didn’t reveal who the company was; he just mentioned that it was one we all knew. Chris missed a few key components of the ‘analog’ campaign, Shannon did a video unveiling with her friends Ken Burbary and Craig Daitch, which was totally cool because we as viewers could experience it firsthand. Valeria took pictures of the packages she was sent and added some brand thought leadership.
Here’s the thing. While it’s cool to share this kind of excitement with fellow bloggers (and I give credit to Edelman and Pepsi for that, who wouldn’t want kudos and word of mouth buzz from colleagues in this space?), wouldn’t have been better to engage Pepsi evangelists?
In just one Google search I found:
- The Pepsi Fan Club
- Pepsi Collector’s Club (They have local chapters in Chicago and Southern California!)
- Mike and Joanne at the Pepsi Collector (they have had over 67,000 views!)
Evangelists LOVE your company and your products…hence the name, right?! As Mack Collier put it so eloquently: “Evangelists for this company would have gone absolutely apeshit over the packages!” Just think of how explosive this could have been if Edelman/Pepsi reached out to any of the above social networking sites that they built themselves based on the love of Pepsi. WOW!
If I was doing social media for Pepsi (a dream, I know), here are 10 steps that I might have thrown on the table:
- Join the above forums/groups and listen to what the Pepsi evangelists are saying.
- After a bit, join the conversation. Let them know that they are loved in return.
- Share some exclusive Pepsi goodies with them.
- Ask the groups how they feel about the current packaging.
- Share some ideas about some new branding concepts.
- Get their feedback.
- If, and only if, feedback is positive about a new brand, select 25 members and ask their permission to mail them a surprise package.
- Get their reaction to the packaging.
- Utilize their excitement (with their permission, of course) for exposure outside their community (i.e. traditional marketing)
- Continue the conversation…daily, on-going, as long as the community exists. (i.e. DO NOT use the community for your branding efforts!)
These are just my ideas. What are your thoughts? Do you like the campaign? How would you have handled it? Does social media work within the chamber? Am I missing something?
If you are Edelman or Pepsi and see this post, please stop by! Inquiring minds would love to know how the campaign came about and your objectives for blogger outreach! Thank you in advance.
[Image: istock]
Added 10/30/08: Darryl Parker has been tracking the Pepsi 25 and his conversation with Edelman’s Pepsi’s B. Bonin Bough over on his blog, Employ the Web!. Check it out for more insights on this campaign.
Added 10/31/08: David Armano’s post on his experience: Classically Un-Classic.
Tags: 42 Responses to “Social media inside the echo chamber”
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Hey Beth,
You know what’s interesting is that I’ve heard a few rumblings around about people even feeling left out somehow. Wouldn’t you as a company feel better knowing that you’d invited people into something that was perhaps special, but not exclusive?
Part of me also wonders about the long term resonance of an effort like this. Will the 25 bloggers’ comments (for better or worse) really be enough to create a lasting affinity for their brand? Are they creating more evangelists, building up the ones they already have? Or are they getting a short-lived jolt from a stunt?
I haven’t decided completely yet (I’m analytical that way) but so far, I’m rather with you.
Beth, this is exactly right. Going for name bloggers rather than evangelists is like getting business writers to comment on football game strategy.
You’ll get good, solid thought – but no passion.
Hi Beth,
I’m guessing that the effort of getting the initial 25 bloggers involved and managing the activity, was relatively small compared to the pay back (case in point – here we are talking about it!).
The list you’ve added makes perfect sense though, and ideally it should have been a case of and / and, rather than either / or.
The 25 bloggers might not have been enough to get lasting affinity for their brand as Amber says, but they would have still got the exposure.
The super fans you identified though would have done the heavy lifting in telling tens of thousands of other fans (and then by extension ordinary consumers) that this was something that you absolutely, positively had to have.
Since Beth was “outted” at Marketing Profs Digital Mixer…I say if you are a company reading this….HIRE HER! NOW. This is fabulous and right on, Beth. Bravo!
Beth I absolutely love the approach you suggested for tackling this social media campaign. By asking the Pepsi evangelists for their feedback on the new Pepsi branding efforts, the eveangelisits would have the opportunity to participate in the evolution of the brand they are *already* excited about.
Involving the individuals that are already excited and talking about Pepsi’s products in the new branding efforts would be a much more effective way to generate a positive buzz about the new image Pepsi is proposing.
Pepsi would be smart to look into hiring someone with an innovative and smart approach to social media. Someone, say…with some serious brains and a whole lot of Harte.
I have a few friends at Edelman Digital that I think are some of the smartest peeps in the biz, so all I’ll say in regard to some of the bloggers that you mention as part of the outreach is that my target list would likely have been different. That’s not a dig at those bloggers (many of whom I count as associates/friends) nor at Edelman, just a note that my approach would have been different.
That said, I think it’s awesome that Pepsi took “the challenge” (pun intended) and dipped their toes in the blogosphere/social media world. Welcome!
I know I’m one of the 25 and I totally get what you’re saying, but at the end of the day, it’s a soda pop. How much community activity can revolve around something that is ultimately a commodity in our culture? Could there be a Kleenex community? How about Windex?
I can see people adding themselves as a fan of Pepsi within other social networks and fansites, but really, how deep of a connection can people form through a shared preference for one cola over another?
I see a little more potential with the people with the Pepsi collectible site, but really, 67,000 hits since 1997?… that’s not quite so impressive. Fans of the product might not be the best brand ambassadors, but might be better reached through promotions and other giveaways.
I think the idea was to reinvigorate the brand — which, I just learned is something they do fairly often. This time they decided to tap people who they felt could help generate a certain amount of discussion around their brand.
That seems to be working. I don’t think the execution was perfect, but I hardly think the solution would be to depend on heavy users of a product that may or may not care one way or another what a product looks like, and certainly wouldn’t care about discussing marketing effectiveness or creating online content.
Commodities by nature have to differentiate themselves through branding since the differences between products are ultimately negligible. This is why brands like Pepsi have the impetus to keep the recipe the same and simply change the packaging every few years.
Hey Beth,
It’s easy enough to understand. Some folks place too much emphasis on who they percieve as influencers, which tends to come with heavy reader counts. (They are obviously not considering outcomes but the modern version of column inches.)
Best,
Rich
Beth you know I agree with pretty much everything you said here. I think Pepsi/Edelman’s goal with giving these packages to ‘influencers’ was to create buzz. I think giving them to evangelists would have created excitement.
BTW your 10-point plan is a good one, I think Pepsi is still listening, and they would be wise to talk to you about how they could form connections in this space, moving forward.
i was about to write the same thing that mack said: pepsi wanted buzz, not feedback or admiration. wanted the word to be that pepsi was new and exciting, that it was catering to the “in-crowd” and to spread the word via SM. i heard and read some of them, probably 10 or so, and i have to say – pepsi got what it wanted.
as an experiment in what SM had to say about a new launch, they got their money’s worth big time. i think that if their objective was to get buzz (which i do believe it was), then they got it.
Esteban, without knowing for certain what Pepsi’s goals were, how do we know they got what they wanted.
I’m agreeing with you on this campaign, Beth. The excitement and the buzz would have been greater if the packages would have been given to the people that love the brand most. It would have been interesting to see how far that community would have taken it. Pepsi missed out big on not tapping what was already there.
[...] like many people are pondering the Pepsi outreach and Beth Harte is one of them. Wondering why Pepsi didn’t outreach to their already evangelist rather than influential bloggers, she analyzes the campaign so far and offers some great advice for Edelman and [...]
Hire Beth! Hire Beth! Hire Beth!
Beth,
Thanks for the summary, I had heard rumblings of this when product was being received by some of those you named. I like your thinking about engaging more of the actual Pepsi evangelists. I disagree a bit with what Shannon mentioned in her comment – that it’s just Pepsi – a commodity-like product. While in some respects it is true, if it were a Windex experiment they’d be smart to work with some of the best window cleaners out there…but with soda it is personal, and it is a choice. I know folks who are so particular about their soda, they will go without one vs. drinking another brand. So I think your point is that a 2-pronged approach would have been valuable here. Yes, engage the blog voices that were “included” to get things rolling, but also don’t miss on those opportunities to engage the real enthusiasts who live every day with a can in their hand.
Thanks again! Great reading today…
Hey Beth, I agree with everything you said but guess who isn’t listening, guess who isn’t monitoring the space? Pepsi-there’s the irony. shouldn’t they be responding to your post? I know I would.
Hit up 25 influential SM bloggers and then what? wait? They created buzz amongst who? Us? I hate Pepsi, what kind of buzz is that? Other than I’m talking about Pepsi on the 30th of October 2008…
Beth, great points. Your target audience and recommended tactics are right on. As Marc said, Pepsi doesn’t seem to be listening, at least outside of the Friendfeed cooler. Some company’s still don’t get it and are just comfortable with command and control on their own terms.
Per Shannon’s great question: of course there are communities around commodities. WaWa’s (the convenience store – ha!) own customers started their own FBook and MySpace fan groups–sans any nudging from WaWa…I don’t even think WaWa knew what social media was at the time
.
And “Prom King” brands (like Alan Wolk calls them) have ‘organic’ followings…like Nike, like M&M’s, Hershey’s Kisses, etc. All because they build a great brand…and so a community formed. Magical, eh? I think so, too.
(That said, I’m not at all labeling Pepsi a “commodity” since it is, in fact, a strong brand–kudos to them)
But, all of that said, I will now take off my social media expert hat and put one on of super-basic ‘marketing 101′. I thought that Pepsi was the taste of the younger generation (I’m talking teens and early 20s)…so how are top marketing bloggers (well into their 30s and 40s) their target… being their readers are probably around the same age? I may likely be missing something (like, this promo might center around a new brand launch from Pepsi that targets a different age demographic/psychographic). So can someone please explain the targeting to me? I fear I might be missing something really obvious.
Dear Pepsi (as I believe you are listening since you’re smart marketers): a GREAT example of embracing evangelists is the Sci-Fi Channel’s campaign where the actual blogger (who already loved the offering) AND their audiences got value. So smart. And many products (like cereal and oatmeal) target mommy bloggers and hold terrific outreach programs. Lastly, what CNN did with YTube and getting consumers involved in the debates was smart, too. Just doing my part to help.
Beth: I’m sorry I’m long-winded, but since I am…is there any way to get a “preview” button on your blog? I might be the only person who ‘previews’ comments before I hit “submit”, but if you go to my blog you’ll see what I mean when you hit “comment”. It might be an option in your blog platform software is my thought. (Btw, those pics of you from the digital mixer are stunning–believe it
Just FYI – we’ve been tracking the Pepsi 25 on my blog and I had a good twittersation with Bonin Bough that I also posted. Thanks!
Thank you so much for the great feedback. All the insights and opinions you all provided make for a really great discussion!
@AmberNaslund Interesting perspective, I hadn’t thought about it from that angle.
Exclusivity does have a negative appeal, doesn’t it?
An interesting comment made by B. Bonin Bough (@boughb) to Darryl Parker on Twitter was: “Hmmm… a MUCH better objective than selling a can of Pepsi. So as research, the recipients apparently didn’t get their role…”
The recipients didn’t get their role. Not sure if I am getting the context as he meant it, but that’s interesting to me. If you look at Darryl’s blog post on this, most recipients just shared a photo.
@FrankMartin, like the analogy there. It’s my impression this was their first step into social media, so perhaps that’s what they were looking for…thoughts and feedback.
@DirkSinger, totally agree and/and would be good. And, of course there’s multiple variations of what could have or can be done. I was just making a suggestion.
@DonnaTocci, thank you for saying that, very kind of you! And totally appreciated of course!
@JennyMcCutcheon, I have been an evangelist and part of a few social networks for a brand, that’s what I was basing my feedback on…it’s amazing how evangelists just talking so passionately gives way to other people spending money on said product(s). And thanks for the vote of confidence!
@AnnieHeckenberger, this was in no way an attempt to say folks at Edelman and Pepsi aren’t smart. It was just a suggestion for reaching out to their most passionate fans. Like I said above, I am sure there are lots of ways for Pepsi to continue swimming in the social media waters…
@ShannonPaul, I would venture a guess that some of those people on the sites I listed had the original cans that you received a replications of. That’s how passionate they are and communities do grow out of passion…even over soda pop! (love that you called it pop!)
Commodity marketing is probably the most difficult because consumers are fickle and finicky. That said, I would still say that’s why you need to tap into the communities…they are with you forever, no matter how many times the can changes. In fact, they probably look forward to the changes because it’s one more can for the collection.
@RichBecker, I can understand why they’d go after reader counts. As I mentioned above apparently B. Bonin Bough (@boughb) thought that the 25 bloggers “apparently didn’t get their role…” [I really want clarity on that…B. Bonin Bough, please stop by! LOL!
]
@MackCollier, thanks Mack! I doubt that Edelman or Pepsi will be dropping by ThoM, let alone giving me a call. But! If they should feel the need, I would love to chat with them about this campaign and get their insights.
@EstebanKolsy, Not so sure they got the buzz they thought they would…but we don’t know for sure just yet.
@Michelle, looks like we’ll have to see if there’s a response from Edelman/Pepsi on the results. I think it would have been cool to see how the community handled it. And what I meant by traditional marketing was press…media exposure. Now that would have been huge.
@Susan, LOL! (And no, I didn’t pay her to say that!)
@JuliannGrant, I am one of those particular people. Dr. Pepper only, unless I am desperate for a soda and it’s not available. So, if they would have selected me, it would have been lost on me…except from a direct marketing perspective.
@MarcMeyer, I was wondering when someone would mention that. They might have seen my post and just selected to not respond. That’s fine, but in my mind it’s not engaging in social media. Thanks for being a straight-shooter here.
@WarrenSukernek, I haven’t been on FF in months. Maybe I should pop on over to the cooler and check it out.
@CK, WAWA!! I heart Wawa…best darn coffee and sandwiches ever! AND they “listen” on Twitter. LOL! I really wish Pepsi would drop by and explain their target audience too CK…otherwise we are all just speculating.
And yes, I will get a plug-in for “previews” (I hope WP has one) just for you!
Thanks for the compliment…we SO missed you at MP DMM! I am trying to find a way to get to SXSW, maybe you’ll come too? Otherwise, I might just have to take a train to NYC to hang out with you!
@DarrylParker, thanks for the additional information. If you don’t mind, I’d like to add a link to your post so that people can see all the links.
If you don’t mind, can you please explain the context around this tweet: “Hmmm… a MUCH better objective than selling a can of Pepsi. So as research, the recipients apparently didn’t get their role…”
What was meant by they didn’t get their role? Thanks!
Correction to what I said to @AmberNaslund, there were posts written, but some just shared a photo. Sorry folks!
I’m late to comment, but in general am in agreement with the overall direction of the various voices.
One thought I’d like to offer in response to Shannon Paul’s observation about pop being a commodity and therefore not unlike tissue or glass cleaner–I believe the difference is the consumer (emotional) connection.
I can’t say that tissue or glass cleaner has been memorable for me, except maybe as an evil necessity for colds or toddler paws. But pop (I’m personally a Coke fan), by contrast, does evoke memories born of emotional connections…days roasting in the Florida rays with friends, a ice-cold drink watching my fave team play a football game…you get the drift.
I think it’s possible that a commodity like pop or jeans (think iconic like Levis) can authentically be evangelized when care is taken to leverage the emotional connection its audiences have with the brand.
PET=persuasion, emotion, trust
Beth – thanks for reaching out. I think what is going on here is interesting and represents a unique opportunity for marketers like you and me to get some air time with major brands.
First – in all fairness to Bonin and his team – we are doing a post-mortem on this effort. Any criticism I believe are being received as constructive, but we do have the significant benefit of hindsight.
Second – B Bonin Bough – my understanding – is with Pepsi. He stated “I’m director of global social media at Pepsico. But in no means do I think I’m direct access. I’m just a channel and catalyst.”
Third – the Twittersation posted on my blog must have been confusing because I left it in Twitter format. I have edited the posted to change it to “Darryl said” and “Bough said”. Folks might want to re-read it in that context.
Ok – to the role question – now that we know that I said that – not Bonin – let’s put it in context.
Bonin asked “How would you have selected the list?”
I answered with what I would consider to be more of a textbook answer and then he replied “Say our objective was to spark conversation about collaborating on social media strategies.”
*pause for effect*
Much different objective than “Introduce new Pepsi logo”. Immediately my response was “Hmmm… a MUCH better objective than selling a can of Pepsi.”
So before we discuss roles, how does this newly considered objective change the reasons why Pepsi is in this space? In my opinion it dramatically changes their reason. It is not a “Hey here we are with our fancy new logo”. The logo was a catalyst to start a conversation. In my mind it shouldn’t have been included because it was a red herring in what I now understand as the greater objective of how the heck does Pepsi (or any monolith brand) survive in the new social media? Months of research, reading and client experiences flooded into my mind and a light bulb clicked. I thought: these guys DO get it – they know the coming advertising disintermediation and that they MUST start paying attention to their customer relationships.
So to roles. Tagged on to the objective supposition statement he said “Of the 9 that you i.d., were they good choices.” To which I responded after my acknowledgement of my new understanding of the objective: “So as research, the recipients apparently didn’t get their role.”
Nearly every post the recipients have spoken about the logo! See the red herring? Some recipients have touched on etiquette and I even put #3 on Mack Colliers post back up at them in the PepsiCooler.
There was a reason they didn’t target evangelist. They don’t want Pepsi enthusiasts, they want social marketing enthusiasts.
I further answered his questions to whether they would good choices and said that in hindsight I had to say I did not believe they were. He said that it got us to this point in the discussion and of course that was hard to argue. I internally thought it quite insightful as to Pepsi’s dedication to this approach. They are looking for a way in because they (and every other monolith brand) need help.
A big concern here though is that I am a firm believer in life cycles. I don’t think Pepsi as a product has much relative life left to it in America. Just as cigarettes are on the decline, sometimes things just come to an end. Buggy whips simply don’t help my Honda go any faster.
PepsiCo, however, is not just Pepsi and that is something they are of course very aware of. They own Tropicana, Gatorade, Quaker Oats, and Lays to name a few. They even have a strategic relationship with Starbucks with the bottled coffees.
So the objective of “collaborating on social media strategies” is powerful. Its an opportunity to shape the world around us. I for one am glad I’ve gotten involved in the conversation.
Read more of our Twittersation on my blog. See if we agree or disagree on who should have been chosen (or who should be moving forward).
Also – I saw in several comments that you guys didn’t think you would hear from Pepsi. You probably won’t unless you first ask a question. If you ask a question, I bet a *diet pepsi* you get an answer.
[...] Beth Harte is having a conversation too. See my responses on the post Social Media Inside the Echo Chamber [...]
@DarrylParker, thank you so much for taking the time to come back and explain the conversation you had with B. Bonin Bough here on my blog. The insights are terrific!
Just to be clear, it wasn’t my intention to be critical, I just wanted to throw on the table what I would have suggested (for what it’s worth). But as you said, it’s easier to do that after the fact AND without a clear understanding of the original goal and objectives.
And, my apologies for not reading the Twittersation properly, I should have. I am going to blame it on lack of sleep, a cold and a Tylenol medicine haze.
I believe that one of the thoughts was exactly what you mentioned that the objective was…to tap into the social media enthusiasts as a “way in.” (Your words, not mine.)
We can all learn from this campaign. The connections and conversations allow for us to tap into one another and learn from one another. I am glad that Pepsi is at least trying.
As for that Diet Pepsi challenge…no thanks! I want a NEW Pepsi can, full & cold! And some popcorn. Heh.
BTW, I am now following Bonin on Twitter and if he follows me back, I’ll ask if he’d be willing to drop by THoM to join our conversation. Although, I was kind of hoping that they’d pick this up via monitoring and would join naturally (hint, hint…customers won’t wait for you to respond to a question *they* ask).
Thank you for the kind mention, Beth. As you and I know, it is a bit easier to talk about change than it is to implement it inside large organizations.
Anyone in this discussion is welcome to read the comments to my post. That is where the real value of the conversation resides.
@HeatherRast, thanks for bringing your consumer branding experience to the table here. I agree with you. With consumer brands it is about the emotion and that’s what makes people fickle. We can totally LOVE a brand one day and completely HATE it the next…and then love it again two months later.
@ValeriaMaltoni, I wholeheartedly agree. It’s a different challenge to turn the boat internally [won't use the Titanic analogy...oops, guess I just did.
].
I love this comment from your post “Focus on the people, and think of the new can/logo as the reason—the tangible reason for being together. ”
Your idea about sharing soda stories (and Heather’s emotional memories up above evoke exactly what you had mentioned) is wonderful.
My soda story is that I always remember my mom giving me ginger ale when I was sick. It had to be ginger ale, nothing else. I am thinking it has something to do with an old wives tale.
Beth, I don’t know where to start because you and your readers bring up so many great points which we are listening to and digesting.
First, let me say thank you for your participation, and to clarify this is not an Edelman program. It’s a Pepsi program (unless this entire experiment doesn’t work than it was all Edelman
. However, Edelman is the agency working with us on this project and we feel strongly about making sure every agency partner is transparent and participatory. That’s not only the right thing to do – we owe that type of openness to the community. Especially since we are asking you to join us in conversation. Also, I have never worked for Edelman in fact they were my direct competitor (arch enemy JK) until 4 weeks ago. But I am very glad to be working with them now, they are a great bunch of people.
You said you wish you worked at Pepsi – I do too but hiring this entire space is above my pay grade… But I hope you will work with us…
The Cooler is about opening up a playground, a lab, an open think… Look, we believe in this space with our hearts and souls. Second only to our evangelists are our network of trusted advisors. In the social media space this is people like you,
like Darryl Parker – who beat me up at first during our twitter exchange
Mack – who still disagrees but is encouraging and willing to listen
all the folks we sent cans to who have responded directly or publicly
and all of the people we have to respond to today and over the weekend
People who talk directly or indirectly to brands everyday trying to get them to participate, some times dragging them kicking and screaming. Our entire team knows what it’s like to sit across the table thinking wow “they just don’t get it” – and might never. Now we are the people on the other side of the table and even though it will still be a heavy lift, with feedback from people like yourself we can make that lift lighter.
As far as approach, it was meant as a disruptive tactic to invite the entire space to come along for the journey. It is a long road and we have a lot of work ahead but there is a great team here and with your critique, inspiration, and tell-it-like it is approach I know we can make this more than a case study that is examined within the echo chamber.
As for evangelists I love the process you laid out above and it is in direct correlation with our thinking. As we move forward we intend to bring ideas like yours into the room – pick at them and see if collectively we can’t make them better. Plus, provide feedback around ideas from our internal teams. But make no mistake, we were not neglecting our evangelists. Look guys this is PepsiCo – we have hundreds of programs to reward our evangelists – not just for Pepsi but across brands. For example just online there are programs like Dewmocracy, CrashTheSuperBowl, Bob’s House and the list goes on. But we wanted to open up a place for conversation within the social media influencer community – an “embassy” (as we are calling it internally), an outpost as Brogan has called them in the past. Our team has been charged with integrating social media and pushing it as far as it can go and then further (then hoping we still have jobs). We wanted to tackle that task with “a little help from our friends”.
If our intent was to go after buzz we would have targeted differently (Perezaratti esque), same goes if we simply wanted to talk about the logo and package design. This was an invitation to join the journey. I hope to see you in the room.
Today I’m hoping to talk about how we should measure and package this exercise? Thoughts?
Thank you for openning up your space to us. – Bonin
Pepsi responded…
Good post, Beth! It just reminds me that agencies are brands that often get blamed for the account team’s work. When you are as big as Edelman, quality control gets lost I think.
Beth,
I’m not going to reiterate the fact that they could have targeted evangelists with this effort. I agree that it would have created excitement.
I’d rather look at the bright side. If this effort is indeed viewed as a mistake… well, they know now! I realize that this was a big event, huge event, in Pepsi’s world. Instead of taking this as a loss and hanging up their cleats, they should learn from this and engage in social media with the evangelists that the social media mavens are referring them to!
They are pretty much getting free social media consulting right? hmmm… maybe that’s just what they wanted…
Michael
[...] I chatted with Mack while his deliveries were arriving and was interested to see what was going to come of all this. Since then, I’ve had the chance to read recaps by bloggers like Mack, Chris Brogan, Peter Shankman and Valeria Maltoni and commentary from folks like Beth Harte. [...]
[...] I chatted with Mack while his deliveries were arriving and was interested to see what was going to come of all this. Since then, I’ve had the chance to read recaps by bloggers like Mack, Chris Brogan, Peter Shankman and Valeria Maltoni and commentary from folks like Beth Harte. [...]
I agree with Michael Bertoldi, If they thought they were doing it right… now they have the feedback from 34 bright social media minds that have now told them…you were close but…
Only in a blogging/twitter setting can you get THAT kind of feedback.
Michael, you’re giving them wayyy too much credit. In fact, it took 30 replies or so to Beth’s blog for Bonin to stop by for a visit.
But in the end.. it served as a great live social media petri dish for a large brand that may or may have not gotten it right, but who at least had the where-withall to try it.
@Bonin, We all knew Pepsi was smart and monitoring and I appreciate you taking the time to explain the campaign method that you selected to my readers and me. I get that you wanted to tap into the brightest social media minds for buzz and feedback and I haven’t had the chance to read everything that everyone has written…but I suspect you achieved your goal. How to measure it? Well, that ultimately depends on what your objectives were. For example, were you hoping that all 25 bloggers (100%) would write a post providing positive feedback within 5 days that would lead to a spike in sales? If so, I don’t think you can say you met that objective. (BTW, that’s just a made up objective). My only point is that Pepsi/Edelman (as your agency) should have had concrete objectives in place so that you could measure against the campaign. You’re all smart marketers that should be an easy job at this point.
I am really looking forward to seeing what you do next in the social media sphere. Building relationships and reaching out to your evangelists can take a long time, but I suspect we are all interested in what Pepsi does over the coming year.
@GeoffLivingston, thank you for the compliment. Agree on the first point, and that’s why agencies need to be confident of their counsel and be willing to step up and pick up the pieces when the campaign doesn’t go as planned. As well, just my two cents, they should be following the conversation wherever it goes (i.e. I haven’t seen much feedback from Edelman except in the FriendFeed Pepsi Cooler) to provide their client with an evaluation of conversations that have occurred. Regarding your second point, I hope that’s not the case. No matter the size of the agency, quality control should never get lost, especially when your client is Pepsi and your campaigns are very visible and open to criticism (direct mail and pitching to bloggers).
@MichaelBertoldi, I don’t get the sense from Bonin that they see this campaign as a mistake. It was a campaign that was meant to tap into 25 bloggers to elicit their feedback and critique and I think they were successful in that manner. And, it did generate buzz for a while.
@MarcMeyer, we do indeed need to give Pepsi, Bonin and the team credit for trying. Having worked for a large Fortune 500 company (as Valeria alluded to), it is indeed very difficult to get the executive team to participate in new endeavors. Especially something like social media where there is a fear of lack of control.
[...] Brogan, Shannon Paul, Mack Collier, Beth Harte and a host of other people have been riffing on Pepsi’s recent logo overhaul and their [...]
[...] I chatted with Mack while his deliveries were arriving and was interested to see what was going to come of all this. Since then, I’ve had the chance to read recaps by bloggers like Mack, Chris Brogan, Peter Shankman and Valeria Maltoni and commentary from folks like Beth Harte. [...]
[...] I chatted with Mack while his deliveries were arriving and was interested to see what was going to come of all this. Since then, I’ve had the chance to read recaps by bloggers like Mack, Chris Brogan, Peter Shankman and Valeria Maltoni and commentary from folks like Beth Harte. [...]
beth
i couldn’t agree with you more. “fish where the fish are.”
here is what i would add to your proposed strategy and i would love your feedback:
for step 9 you wrote, “Utilize their excitement (with their permission, of course) for exposure outside their community (i.e. traditional marketing).”
in addition to traditional marketing i would THEN reach out to the top 25 big wig bloggers to let them know of the success of your current campaign utilizing brand evangelists. first you target your core audience and then you go for mass exposure second. this gives bloggers even MORE to write about. pepsi has not only launched a new design, but a successful social media campaign as well.
with that said…great great great post beth.
-N
@NicoleAimee, totally agree with your addition. The enthusiasm of evangelists and customers is what is important. Handling an SM outreach this way gives bloggers lots of case study goodness. And we can all use SM case studies to continually show SM’s viability.
Nice post….very useful information…..