Pepsi
Situation
Pepsi wanted a way to keep its product front of mind for consumers during the recession, and thought that initiatives that encourage consumers to interact with the brand would help. It also wanted to expand its Refresh national branding effort.
Approach
Working with R/GA and Eyeblaster, Pepsi launched “Dear Mr. President” in January, as the country was about to swear in President Barack Obama.
Banner ads ran on Yahoo Music, YouTube and the Google Content Network, prompting users to create video messages for Obama that could be directly uploaded via the banner and added to Pepsi’s YouTube channel. Users also could send text messages from Refresheverything.com or YouTube.
“We wanted to let people interact with the brand no matter where they were online,” says Dean Donaldson, digital experience strategist at Eyeblaster.
Results
In 15 days, more than 700 user-generated videos were submitted, 14% of which came directly from the banners. The videos got more than 3.5 million views across Refresheverything.com, YouTube and other sites. The banners also generated 103,000 mobile texts.
-Mary Hurn
Purina
Approach
Purina worked with Oddcast and its internal agency Checkmark to create a “critter carols” feature on Petcentric.com, Purina’s pet community site. During the holidays, users could choose a holiday song for an avatar of their dog or cat to bark or meow while accompanied by dancing background singers, all of which would appear in an e-mail.
Results
Over the course of 35 days, 63% of users began a session after receiving an e-mail message. The site saw 532,000 user sessions, 58% of which were unique.
-Bryan Yurcan
S.E.VEN Fund
Approach
As a global, Web-based non-profit fostering enterprise-based solutions for poverty, S.E.VEN Fund needed a strong Web presence. Agency Fresh Tilled Soil revamped the site to optimize it for search in November 2007 and still is updating SEO terms, created promotional microsites and updated functionality to improve the site’s visibility.
Results
In summer 2008, S.E.VEN’s Google search rankings for keywords began to move from the second or third results page to the first or second result, and has remained there since.
-Jonathan Mack
PRIVATEVIEW
Michael Ventura, creative director, Seed Gives Life
I really love Pepsi’s Dear Mr. President campaign. The creative is simple, clean and built to contain the core functions of the campaign. The technical aspects of the work are also something to be applauded. I even like how the notion of ‘refresh’ has been applied to how we think about banner ads. This campaign knows exactly what it wants consumers to do and delivers on that ambition clearly and concisely. From concept to design and execution, this work presents itself as well as the man that is on the receiving end.
Not to be a cynic or anything, but I’m really over the whole brand of “viral” work exemplified by Purina’s critter carols. We saw it done well with “Elf Yourself” and then ripped off a thousand times. Also, Oddcast’s technology is cool, but its application here is forced and just another example of a good idea being re-appropriated until it dies a slow, sad death. And, the creative is uninspired and predictable, too. Please stop.
I hate being negative about a campaign that is clearly working to make the world a better place, but there’s no personality in the S.E.VEN Fund creative. For something with such an applaudable cause, the use of staid stock photography and neutral palette leads this work to become dull and uninspired. The sentiment of the campaign is lost in the lackluster visual language of the site. Where are the photos of the hearts and minds behind the cause? This campaign needs a human element that is clearly missing.