It's probably safe to say that the advertisement that everyone is still talking about after the Super Bowl didn't even air during the Super Bowl. In fact, there wasn't a traditional advertisement in this campaign. With that said, for me, it's quite simple; the Pepsi Refresh Project campaign was the best campaign launched around the Super Bowl and it isn't even close.
If you review the campaign, it all started in the middle of December; almost two months before the actual Super Bowl took place. There was a lot of press writing about how Pepsi was pulling all of its advertising budget from the Super Bowl.
ABC News Wall Street Journal Time Magazine
What I found interesting was that Pepsi was moving its typical Super Bowl advertising budget to social media. At the time, I didn't pay enough attention to what that meant. So when the Super Bowl was played, I noticed Pepsi's absence during the game and thought to myself, "I wonder what Pepsi is actually doing in the social media space." That triggered some research and in a few short minutes, I discovered Pepsi's campaign.
With the Super Bowl over and the New Orleans Saints Champions, most of the commercials are forgotten. The Pepsi Refresh Project continues. It continues to garner buzz; it continues to reward consumers and companies who participate and it continues to inspire (Its Facebook Fan Page has over 600k fans).
In fact, a good friend of mine and I are working on submitting a project. I will write a blog specific on what our idea is and how you can help, but I want to focus this post on the project itself. If you have not read about it or looked at the website, I ask that you do. It will give you a new perspective on Pepsi and more importantly, the smart decision Pepsi made on pulling it's ad budget out of the Super Bowl. Lastly, it will hopefully inspire you to think of great ideas to submit.
