Affinitive’s Social Media Playground

As anyone might have guessed, December 2009 brought with it a deluge of year-end retrospectives and year-ahead predictions in social marketing. Industry luminaries, climbers, and just about anyone with a Twitter account and an opinion spoke out.   By putting an ear to the ground one may have heard some harmony emerging, and innovation in cause marketing was among these topics cutting through the noise.

Now, as we’re just oiling the gears , the first major cause marketing program of the year has kicked off, courtesy of Pepsi. Dubbed the Pepsi Refresh Project, the effort has begun accepting ideas for community projects, and setting aside a Super Bowl-sized sum for funding the best of the best as voted on by the public.

Initial evidence points to a home run here (despite a slight stumble out of the gate).  A recent study from Cone reports that a majority of Americans are keen to support causes online, especially if the support isn’t a direct financial contribution. This is exactly how Pepsi is playing it, backing the funding of winning projects with dollars traditionally spent on Super Bowl advertising.

“Eighty-five percent of respondents say new media provides them (Americans) with an opportunity to learn about new issues, and a similar number (80%) believe it provides another way to support their favorite causes. They champion important issues in a variety of ways, including advocacy (36%) (such as forwarding a message to friends), personal behavior change (34%) and purchasing cause-related products (23%).”
-2009 CONE CONSUMER NEW MEDIA STUDY

Cause marketing is nothing new, but innovations in crowdsourcing has allowed Pepsi, a brand not necessarily built from the ground up to be socially conscious, to take a step back and empower consumers to make a difference on an individual and personal level.

It’s a program we’re watching here at Affinitive. What are your first impressions of the Pepsi Refresh Project?