Social Media Releases

Over the past weekend I was fortunate enough to have the daunting task of writing the paper from hell. It was for my Visual Communication class and involved analyzing an image, or set of images, with the semiotic analysis and other technical terms like that. After flip flopping six or seven times, I finally chose to analyze Pepsi's new logo and the billboard they put up in Times Square for the New Year. Here are the actual images I analyzed:




















Most of my research for the project came from Blogs. In the process I learned about the "Pepsi 25" which was Pepsi's innovative way of getting their new campaign out there. The gist, is that during one coordinated hour, 25 prominent Bloggers would receive three packages within an hour and a DVD. The packages would be spaced twenty minutes apart, exactly. Each package contained ten cans of Pepsi soda with each can holding a classic logo Pepsi once held.



I thought this approach was interesting. It was a real example of the new digital promotions that we've been learning about in class. Throughout reading about it, I came to a couple of conclusions.

1. The goal was not to turn these prominent bloggers into Pepsi drinkers, but gain exposure on their blogs highlighting the new logo.
2. It would have been more effective if Pepsi could guarantee delivery to the person directly. I am under the impression many didn't get the packages until later and learned the strategy from other bloggers.
3. While it promoted the new logo and gained exposure, it did not persuade consumers into buying Pepsi's product. Which you would assume would be their primary goal.

I thought it was fascinating. The paper was probably mediocre at best, I don't think I went as deep as my professor would have liked, but the research I did gave me real life examples of interesting promotional techniques in today's ever-changing world.