Pepsi: Less TV advertising, more social media
The soft drink manufacturer Pepsi is scaling back its TV advertising and stepping up its social media activities instead. After 23 years of consistent advertising, the soft drink giant is for the first time opting not to run commercials during the broadcast of the Super Bowl final in the U.S.
Market observers estimate the company's advertising expenditure around last year's Super Bowl at around 15 million US dollars. Some of the savings are now being invested in social media activities, above all in the "Pepsi Refresh" project, as reported by the industry service Horizont.net. The corresponding website is to be launched in mid-January. According to the Wall Street Journal, Pepsi wants to transfer donations to community projects selected by consumers. 20 million US dollars have been earmarked for this. At the same time, the manufacturer wants to increase its spending on online advertising by 60 percent this year. Pepsi justifies the move towards the web by saying that this is the best way to appeal to younger target groups.
