I was reading Marketing Mag again, and another article caught my eye.

Coke vs. Pepsi.

We’ve always known the two soft drink powerhouses to be the first and second, but just recently, a change in the the US market has put both Coke, and now Diet Coke ahead of Pepsi.

AdAge, another of my favourite blogs also had a similar article.

Both Marketing Mag and AdAge questioned whether it was a smart move by Pepsi to suddenly drop from the loop of Super Bowl commercials this year. Instead, they chose to give $20 billion in grants to consumers as opposed to spending it on celebrity endorsements in the new Refresh Project. I personally had an encounter with the project since a friend of mine was working the promotion. In short, students were asked “what do you care about?” and then had the opportunity to take a picture, proudly holding their idea written on a whiteboard in front of a select background of their choice.

I must be perfectly honest, this push promotion strategy seemed to work at the time, and I was intrigued with the concept behind the project. But since the picture, I have forgotten about the project until now (that was in Oct.) and the picture is probably buried under some marketing notes in my room. In fact, when I think Pepsi, I think about this commercial:

and not the project.

So perhaps a funny commercial with a well-known celebrity is a lot more long lasting? Especially since only a select few will have their Refresh ideas granted, as opposed to using a celebrity in a pull promotion.

Coke, the long leader seems to do this well. With a well-known product placement in popular reality singing competition – American Idol and its long-time sponsorship of the Olympics since 1928!