The Social Media Super Bowl

0 Comment(s) | Posted Jan 28, 2010 by Peter Wylie

Peter Wylie

The Super Bowl is going to kick off in 10 days, but another high-profile game is already under way in the social media space.  Pepsi-Cola and Coca-Cola are both making big bets on the impact of social media on their advertising campaigns around the game, with Pepsi even going so far as to bypass traditional television ads for the game.  Instead, the company is going to give away $20 million to charities selected by social media users, in a project called Pepsi Refresh. 

Coca-Cola is taking a different route and running two television ads that will include tie-ins to social media, according to a New York Times article.   The company will use the ads to attract people to its Facebook page, where the company will allow visitors to share virtual gifts with friends.  Coca-Cola will also donate $1 to the Boys and Girls Club of America for each person that visits.

The success of the two high-profile social strategies will have a big impact on further experimentation by major brands on social networks.  If the campaigns are successful in generating buzz and interest from consumers, other companies will be more willing to take chances with large spends on social media marketing campaigns. 

As to the Super Social Soda Bowl, going into the matchup, Coca-Cola has the clear advantage, with more than 4.2 million fans on Facebook compared to less than 300,000 fans for the Pepsi page.  Pepsi should be able to generate a large increase in its community with the budget it is using for the Refresh project. 

Tying the campaigns to philanthropic activity was a good strategy for both brands, as social audiences are likely to respond more favorably to indirect brand building messages than direct sales calls.  Consumers are more likely to form positive associations with both brands, due to that strategy. 

The “all-in” approach Pepsi is taking is going to be the most interesting factor of the advertising competition.  If it manages to create more positive interactions then Coke, it will be a tremendous validation for social media marketing campaigns.  But if Coke proves to be more successful with its integrated approach of using traditional advertising to get people to interact on social networks, it could have a cooling effect on other large social media centric campaigns by other large brands.

Who do you think will prevail next Sunday online?       

Filed under: Emerging Media, Old World Changing, Online Communities, Twitter-related