Group+7


 * Pepsi Refresh Project** media type="youtube" key="rl7VL79ZurM?version=3" height="360" width="640"

**Introduction**
By Kathryn Hewitt The Pepsi Refresh Challenge started in 2010 when Pepsi chose to contribute money to communities rather than spend $20 million on Superbowl ads. This was the first time in 23 years that Pepsi did not run a Superbowl ad.The Pepsi Challenge is the most recently developed category of the Pepsi Refresh Project. The Pepsi Refresh Project is an interactive social marketing campaign that relies on requests from the public for contribution ideas. Once enough ideas have been submitted, the public is then asked to submit votes. The cause with the most votes is then allocated funding. The Pepsi Challenge slightly deviates from the Refresh concept in that Pepsi poses a question to the public each month, such as, “what gadgets does your school need?” and asks for the public to provide solutions and ideas (2). The question each month concerns a different social category. The categories are arts & music, communities and education. Participants can submit ideas through Twitter, Facebook or text message. http://www.refresheverything.com/categories/pepsi-challenge ** What is the issue or cause the organization is targeting? ** By Kathryn Hewitt In a generation where consumer participation is part of our culture, Pepsi has harnessed that idea and used its power for an opportunity to give back to Americans. The organization, not only looks to consumers of their products, but also to the general public to tell them what they need. Pepsi Refresh asks the public to submit applications for causes they would like funding for and then the public is asked to vote. One of the many causes that was voted for enabled the Refresh Project to team with the Child Life Connection and donate money to fund creating murals in hospitals for children earlier this year. The Pepsi Refresh Project has funded projects to care for abondoned and abused exotic pets at Critter Camp Exotic Pet Sanctuary. The Pepsi Challenge poses an inspiring question in one of the three categories every month. Causes that the Challenge has targeted include: teaming up with The Cat Network, Inc to help reduce cat overpopulation and to educate the public about spaying and neutering their pets; teaming up with Quality Assist, Inc to help provide early education for 15,000 low income children; and inspiring Americans to come up with an answer to how they want to honor soldiers from their hometown. The Pepsi Refresh Project is targeting causes that are relevant to Americans in all walks of life. From underprivileged kids, to natural disaster victims, from animals, to small business owners, Pepsi is granting wishes and voices of the American people are being heard (1)

**What methods are being used by Pepsi Refresh to promote this cause? **
By Kim Hart Pepsi as a brand has begun to heavily utilize digital and social networking in recent years, especially in the promotion and development of the Pepsi Refresh Project. With opportunities to connect in ways ranging from their informative [|website], Facebook pages and apps and Twitter accounts like [|Refresh Community] to Pepsi's "direct line to [|Pepsiverse]", Pepsi is making it simple to share ideas and communicate worldwide.

Recently, Pepsi has taken a daring turn in their funding plans and put forth a large amount of faith in social networking. Due to the strength that Pepsi's social networking has over its advertising and relationship with its public, Pepsi has determined that spending money on Super Bowl ads is not necessary, and is instead planning to use the money to fund Pepsi Refresh Projects, which will generously increase the funding for the winners by millions of dollars. According to Bonin Bough, the Global Director of Digital and Social Media for PepsiCo, "Our theory of social change is that new ideas are born from optimism, a curious mind and a creative spirit. We can make a difference by equipping people with the means to bring their ideas to life. And, we believe social media and digital engagement can fuel, extend and inform these efforts." With a goal as simple as listening to what their public has to say and encouraging creativity, Pepsi hopes that continuing a strong community through social networking will eventually propel the Refresh Project to uncover ideas that will "refresh the world."



** What has been the result so far of this effort? **
By Ashleigh Casanova The Pepsi Refresh Project has so far done a great job philanthropically speaking, but for the actual Pepsi Company there’s been mixed results. By December 2010, Pepsi was able to fund 351 projects with over $14.6 million. Grants were divided between the 6 categories (now lowered to 3); Health, Arts & Culture, Food & Shelter, the Planet, Neighborhoods and Education. This included the “refreshment” of 54 schools, 26 parks/playgrounds, 10 children’s homes and 6 community centers. (5)

In the summer of 2010, after the BP oil spill, Pepsi put a special focus on ideas with emphasis on this disaster. They added an additional $1.3 million towards a special competition called “Do Good for the Gulf.” (6) New Orleans Saints quarterback, Drew Brees, urged us to help out the area he called home. (7) Project responses for this competition included building seafood farms to help employ displaced workers, creating shelters for animals that lost their homes, and providing mental health services for victims of the oil disaster.

While the Pepsi Refresh Project has done great for our community, the same cannot be said for Pepsi’s sales. Cause marketing is always a risky decision for a company depending on what outcome you are looking for. Pepsi seems to be pleased with their decision to use the money that would have been spent on Super Bowl commercials to help community projects of all sizes. With over 3 million “likes” on their Facebook page and millions of comments on the PRP website, why did Pepsi still have an 8.6% sales decrease in 2010? Maybe marketing through social media isn’t as beneficial as it seems… With an economy like this, it is still too early to tell what the root behind all of this is – especially looking at Coca-Cola’s quite similar 6.6% decrease. (8) Hopefully more people will become aware of all the opportunities Pepsi is presenting to our community and continue to buy Pepsi products. It’s better to see millions of dollars go to rebuilding parks and helping those in need instead of another commercial with Beyonce or Britney Spears.

**Evaluate the effort overall.** By Jamie Finkel The Pepsi Refresh campaign effort is very strong overall. Numerous communities thus far have been positively influenced by the company's generosity. This generosity, however, was no random act of kindness. The marketing team behind the Pepsi brand developed this campaign to generate conversation around the Pepsi name and to transform their product-driven brand into one with a known public service cause. Pepsi knew that this campaign would prove effective in bettering their reputation, but the company leaders also saw an opportunity to help their consumers, and this latter decision shows that the organization does really care about the cause and not purely for publicity's sake. Upon terminating their expensive Superbowl campaign, Pepsi looked toward social media interaction and philanthropy (4). This was a smart decision, as the efforts and successes have had a synergistic effect of sorts. One community's Pepsi-catalyzed idea and success story influences another community to partake in the Refresh Challenge. This chain reaction not only spreads the positivity, but it allows for great public relation opportunities as it ads to the brand's good reputation. This is a synergistic effect in that the individual local projects work with and compliment each other to improve an entire community. All the while, the campaign raises public awareness and increases brand positivity.

There is little chance that this campaign will backfire and cause harm to the Pepsi company. The ideas are conjured up and voted on by community members. Pepsi simply funds these projects. The brand is receiving feedback in the form of majority vote prior to action. They know that they are satisfying consumer desires from the start. In this way, it is a brilliant campaign.

Pepsi is already an incredibly well-known cola product. The brand sponsors NASCAR drivers, is available for order at countless restaurants, and has had advertisements over the years featuring celebrities such as Britney Spears, Michael Jackson, and Jim Carrey (3). To say the least, Pepsi was well-known long before the Refresh Campaign. Lesser-known companies might attempt to attach their brands to causes in order to gain popularity, but this was unnecessary for Pepsi. For this reason, it appears that the brand truly does care about the causes they have chosen to support. Because of the Pepsi Refresh campaign, people no longer think of Pepsi as just another carbonated beverage- they think of it as a company with positive moral values that genuinely cares about their consumers' well being.

By Parker Maass Pepsi is one of America's major corporations and beverage distributors. With this in mind, it is great to see a company helping out local communities all over the country. They have reached out and have gotten in touch with local citizens, and instead of merely donating money to a random cause, they have allowed the citizens to choose their own causes. Although the Pepsi Refresh Project has only been around for a short amount of time, it has already made a huge difference and contributed a lot of money to great causes. This effort to help people all over the country by allowing them to choose where they need help the most has proven to be a great success and will definitely be around for awhile.
 * Conclusion **

__ ** References ** __ 1) Buss, D (2011, May 11) Pepsi Refreshes Refresh- and Pepsi Challenge. Brandchannel.com Retrieved October 26, 2011 from http://www.brandchannel.com/home/post/2011/05/11/Pepsi-Refresh-Pepsi-Challenge.aspx 2) Schonfeld, E (2010, January 13) Social Marketing Gone Awry: Pepsi Refresh Needs to Refresh Its Security Settings. Techcrunch.com. Retrieved October 25, 2011 from [|__http://techcrunch.com/2010/01/13/pepsi-refresh-security/__]  3) (2011, Oct. 11) List of Pepsi Spokespersons. //Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia//. Retrieved October 27, 2011 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Pepsi_spokespersons 4) Refresh Team of GOOD. Pepsi Refresh Project Blog. //Support Your Community - Pepsi Refresh Project//. Pepsi.com Retrieved Web. 27 Oct. 2011 from http://www.refresheverything.com/blog/ 5) (2010, December 15). Pepsi Refresh Project Fun Facts. Pepsico.com. Retrieved October 25, 2011 from []

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">6) Sass, E. (2011, January 31). The Cause That Refreshes: Project Boosts Pepsi Brand, Not Sales. MediaPostBlogs. Retrieved on October 27, 2011 from http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/143883/

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">7) Schwartz, A. (2010, August 2). Pepsi Refresh Project’s “Do Good for the Gulf” Campaign Takes Off. Fastcompany.com. Retrieved October 27, 2011 from http://www.fastcompany.com/1676942/pepsi-refresh-projects-do-good-for-the-gulf-campaign-takes-off

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">8) Refresh Team of GOOD. (2010, July 14). Do Good for the Gulf: Be a Part of the Winning Team. Refresheverything.com. Retrieved October 27, 2011 from []

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">9) Bough, Bonin. "Pepsi Refresh Project: An Insider's View - Guest Post by Bonin Bough."//Beth's Blog: Nonprofits and Social Media//. Web. 28 Oct. 2011. <http://beth.typepad.com/beths_blog/2010/02/pepsi-refresh-project-an-insiders-view-guest-post-by-bonin-bough.html>.