Pepsi Refreshing Campaign

By using Social Media marketing strategies Pepsi has instead of allocating $20m to event based traditional advertising, launched the Pepsi Refresh Project.
Pepsi is basically funding refreshing ideas that would change the world in many aspects. The idea is based on the fact that people, businesses, or non-profits would come up with suggestions that would have a positive impact on issues related to Health, Education, Food & Shelter, Neighbourhoods, Arts & Culture, or the Planet. People are then invited to vote for their favourites and the idea with the most votes would receive grants.
This campaign encourages people to increase their involvement with the brand by letting the consumers decide which projects to fund and how the money is distributed. One could assess that this is not a cause marketing initiative, neither an advertising campaign. It is somehow a new way of doing business that is mainly based on Pepsi’s belief that doing well means doing good.
Besides the large format billboard campaign of Hit Refresh in Australia, Pepsi has also put in place a social networking based scavenger hunt and has created a partnership with youth channel MTV and has used online media, in-store media, in-store promotions and product sampling.