Since 1987 Pepsi has created a Super Bowl commercial for 23 years straight until 2010, when they saw an opportunity that would refresh the world. On Wednesday, January 13th, 2010 Pepsi launched its online Refresh project. The goal of the Pepsi Refresh project is to take the money that would have been spent on a Super Bowl advertisement and instead donate that money to people with great ideas.

Pepsi would have spent around 20 million for their Super Bowl commercial but took this money to award in the form of grants in the amounts of 5k, 25k, 50k, and 250k. To receive the grant money the contestants would go to @refresheverything.com and would pick from one of the six categories, Health, Arts and Culture, Education, Food and Shelter, Neighborhoods, and the Planet. Once the contest had an idea to better one of the 6 categories they would type up their idea and why people should vote for them. Pespi allowed up to 1,000 submissions each month and once they hit 1,000 they would cut off submissions and the voting began. People from all around the world could vote on their favorite ideas, and the ideas with the most votes would be awarded a grant in the amount of their choosing/how much they needed to bring their idea to life.

When the project first came up people were excited, they had hope that they could win a grant and fulfill their great ideas. The media coverage was also positive, major news outlets were eager to see where the project would go. Once the contestants started to receive their money, stories started to pop up about the great things the grant money and the contestants had accomplished. For example, a news article published by the Daily Record Morristown shares a story of a no-kill animal shelter that received $50,000 from Pepsi and how many animals the shelter was able to save because of the grant. Overall, the positive PR Pepsi was receiving was a great look for the company, however, the good vibes did not last long. 

On January 5th, 2011 the New York Times came up with an article that accused Pepsi of cheating and fraudulent voting. The New York Times explained how a few non-profit groups mysteriously rose to the top of the polls and beat out other contestants for the money. Ideas that had been at the top felt that they had been robbed of their money and questioned how the other groups climbed so quickly. Pepsi started an investigation and tweaked the project by removing the $250,000 prize and dropping the Health, Planet, and Food and Shelter categories.

Not only were cheating accusations continuing to arise but Pepsi was down on sales and Diet Coke eventually took Pepsi’s spot as the nation’s no.2 soda. Unfortunately, these factors spoiled the good nature of the campaign and Pepsi ended the project in March of 2012.

Overall the Pepsi Refresh project was an incredible idea and a great example of cause marketing. The project supported thousands of ideas and gave people hope for a brighter and refreshed world. The grant money went to good causes and many organizations and individuals were able to improve and increase their efforts that helped others and the planet. If the Pepsi refresh project were to start up again today I would recommend that they follow Bombas, sales first approach. Bombas is a socks and apparel company that has a one-for-one policy. So for every purchase you make the company will donate a pair of socks or apparel to those in need like homeless shelters, schools, and nonprofit organizations. If Pepsi were to include a purchase of a Pepsi for one submission rule they would be able to keep up with sales and increase the longevity of the project.

           

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Sources:

“Giving Back.” Bombas, shop.bombas.com/pages/giving-back. Accessed 26 Feb. 2024. 

Strom, Stephanie. “New Charges of Cheating Tarnish Pepsi Fund-Raising Contest for Nonprofits.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 6 Jan. 2011, www.nytimes.com/2011/01/06/business/06charity.html?searchResultPosition=1.

Pepsi. “The Pepsi Refresh Project Announces 32 New Grant Recipients to Receive a Total of $1.3 Million to Refresh the World.” PR Newswire: Press Release Distribution, Targeting, Monitoring and Marketing, 30 June 2018, www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/the-pepsi-refresh-project-announces-32-new-grant-recipients-to-receive-a-total-of-13-million-to-refresh-the-world-91899109.html.

I watch the Super Bowl for two reasons, the commercials and the outfits. For some reason, the station I was watching the game on did not show a lot of the popular commercials, however, they did show one commercial that stole my heart.

I am a bit biased considering I have one cat and love cats in general, which is why the Hellmann’s Mayo cat commercial was my favorite by far. I never eat mayo, I never think about mayo, and I never buy mayo, but this commercial made me want to buy mayo and go home to see my cat, Rosie.

The commercial had a simple concept, the commercial showed a cat meowing, but the meow sounded like “mayo”. The commercial featured Kate McKinnon, who is my favorite person on SNL, and Pete Davidson who I think can be funny at times. It’s a known fact that people love cats, if you go on the internet or social media you are bound to see at least one cat picture or video. So incorporating a cat into a commercial was a great idea, and it caught my attention because I normally hate mayo but the commercial made me fond of the brand. Including comedians Pete Davison and Kate McKinnon was also a great idea because they are entertaining, funny, and famous. This commercial was great because it was very light-hearted and funny, some of the Super Bowl commercials can be serious and boring but this one was entertaining.

If I worked for Hellmann’s as their Public Relations professional I would tell them to run with the cat idea. I would create social media posts and more commercials that feature cats in different and entertaining ways. I would even go so far as to make the cat the official mascot for the brand. Target did it for their brand with the Bullseye dog, Geico did it with a Lizard and now Hellmann’s should do it with a cat. It’s a great way to reach a specific audience and it worked on me, so it should work on others.

Source:https://www.sportingnews.com/us/nfl/news/kate-mckinnon-super-bowl-commercial-hellmanns-mayo-cat-ad/12599b00e494e6e5ecc89537

Many people are calling Super Bowl 58 the most expensive Super Bowl with the average price per person being $9,859. This year’s Super Bowl is on Sunday, February 11th, 2024 at the Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada where the Chiefs and 49ers will go head-to-head.

According to the New York Times, the cheapest tickets are $6,800 and the most expensive are $75,000 and that’s without fees. This also does not include travel costs, parking tickets, food, drinks, and other additional fees. At this rate who can even afford to go to the Super Bowl? It seems that only big corporations and millionaires can go leaving the common folk to watch from the comfort of their own homes. It’s a bit sad what the Super Bowl has turned into, many lifelong fans can only ever dream of going to a game as big as the Super Bowl. However, Influencers and big corporate workers appear to get in with ease, regardless if they know a thing about football or not.

If you do manage to get your hands on a ticket you might want to fill up before the games as food and drink prices are also through the roof. According to the Mirror, Beer prices will range from, $14-$18,  a glass of wine $17, and water $7 a single slice of pizza is $13 and the list just goes on. So if you do get a ticket, the line doesn’t end there as a single slice of pizza costs almost the price of a whole pie anywhere outside of the Stadium.

In terms of the PR perspective, it seems that the big game is just a big scam, the prices are so high, that even if I had the money I wouldn’t go unless I was a die-hard fan. However, fans are so used to watching the games from home, that many articles are published every year about the best Super Bowl snacks, where to watch the game, etc. The one upside of staying at home besides saving money has to be the commercials. It’s almost comical seeing companies spend millions for a 30-second ad that most of us will be grabbing a snack or heading to the bathroom during. Some commercials are entertaining though and many end up on a “Best commercials of the Super Bowl” listicle.

In the end, it’s best to pre-order your pizza and wings, invite your friends over, and poke fun at this egregious tradition.

Sources:

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/06/travel/super-bowl-tickets-cost.html

https://www.themirror.com/sport/american-football/super-bowl-price-pizza-food-326068.amp

I followed Drunk Elephant’s TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook for five days to monitor and analyze their posts to understand their social media strategy.

Starting with their Instagram, they posted daily for the five days I analyzed their account and three of those days the post was a reel. They often posted a reel to their main page and the reel section of their Instagram so it worked for both categories. Thursday, February 1st was the first day I started my report and I continued to notice one thing was very clear their following stayed the same.

Unfortunately, their follower count was hidden so I could only see their increase through millions and the 1.9 million followers stayed the same. But what caught my attention was the 1,582 following, I did a deep dive and was surprised at what I found, meme pages, golden retriever pages, a few fan accounts, influencers, and of course the brand’s owner. I understand the influencers, owners, and fan accounts but the meme and dog pages threw me for a loop, maybe that’s the brand’s way of staying in touch with the common person or for inspiration for their posts which leads me to their most popular post/reel.

Their most popular post regarding shares (811) and views (389k) is a meme of a little boy running with the caption “Drunk Feels, every week we are sharing our favorite feel-good content…” I found their meme post to be a very smart move, it helped break up their feed as most of their posts are pictures of their products. As for the brand’s engagement and replies they only replied to an average of 1 comment per post however, they did like each comment. Responding to comments is very important because it shows the consumer that you care and thank them for taking the time to comment on a post. Although their replies in their comment section were poor they did re-post 4 of their followers’ pictures and reels and they followed a few fan accounts which is a great way to connect.

Drunk Elephant’s target audience is primarily females ages 13-70, they have a huge age range as their products can target young sensitive skin, acne, and aging skin. They reposted a reel of an older influencer on Monday and a few of their older posts include images of those with aging skin. Posting images not only of young adults but of older people as well helps tell their audience that their product is for any age and that they value inclusivity. Drunk Elephant also has saved stories where they do Q&A’s, which shows healthy two-way communication but they haven’t done one in a while which is something they should fix.

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In terms of traffic, they had one post that showed a new bundle bag and in the caption, they said “Link in bio to shop the Littles 6.0.” Mentioning the link in bio is a great way to drive traffic from their Instagram to their website where followers will be most likely to purchase an item.

Moving on to Drunk Elephants TikTok, their posting was inconsistent compared to their Instagram as they only posted 2 out of the 5 days.

As I mentioned earlier their response in the comments section on Instagram was poor, however, I did receive a response on one of their TikTok videos. I commented both positively and negatively on their videos and in one of my comments I said “Drunk Elephant was the best!” and received heart emojis as a response back. Their response on TikTok in the comments section was much better compared to Instagram, with one post receiving 19 replies from the brand to the original commenter.

The competitor I decided to analyze was Bubble, I chose Bubble because they have many similar products to Drunk Elephant and many consider it a dupe as it is cheaper. Bubble is a newer company having launched in 2020 but they have been growing fast on social media just based on TikTok followers alone Bubble has 1.9 million and Drunk Elephant has 1.2 million. But for followers on Instagram Drunk Elephant has 1.9 million and Bubble only has 452k.

The main difference I noticed with Bubble is that their engagement with their audience is incredible compared to Drunk Elephant, from the five days I was analyzing, they had two Instagram posts with the captions, “We love hearing from you” and “We love you”, they also had numerous ongoing stories (they had an average of 3 story posts a day) that had Q&A’s and information on how to use their products for different skin types. I noticed that Drunk Elephant used to post stories more as they have a lot saved but because Bubble is a newer company they are continuing to churn out stories about their products to increase engagement whereas Drunk Elephant seems to have forgotten about that aspect. One thing Drunk Elephant has that Bubble is trying to increase is brand awareness, because Drunk Elephant has been around longer they have been able to build a stronger awareness that Bubble is trying to build. The main reason I say this

             

Final thoughts, Drunk Elephant has the following and the credibility due to how long they have been around for and the work they have put into their social media. However, it seems that some of their appreciation and engagement they once had, has been lost. I would tell their social media professional to start posting every day on TikTok as the bare minimum TikTok is fast moving so they need to stay relevant by posting every day. They need to take advantage of trends, they should be using trending audio and ideas for every post. They need to increase their stories on Instagram and need to bring back Q&A’s to make their follower feel seen and heard. As for their Facebook, they should just delete the account if they are going to put zero effort into it. The majority of people that are talking about the brand are on Instagram or TikTok so they need to hone in on those and be spewing out content. They have to step up their responses as well, they should make it a goal to respond to at least 40% of their comments, if a follower is taking the time to comment they should have the decency to reply. Drunk Elephant seems to have lost their personal touch as they have continued to gain popularity which is something Bubble has tons of and if they want to stay in touch their engagement and appreciation for their consumers/followers has to increase.