PepsiCo's New Year's Revolutions

Some people think that when a new year comes around everything is new. Clean slate. New year equals new life. I'm not one of those people. You probably still work at the same place, have the same girlfriend, and the same problems. January 1st is just the day after December 31st for me. Not that I don't celebrate new year's like its 1999 (is that phrase even applicable anymore??), but I live in reality. Apparently Pepsi Co. has adopted that philosophy and has attempted to refresh everything. Literally, I mean just change all their stuff.

When the new Pepsi logo was launched, I thought that it was a smart move to use the wordplay to allow consumers to become accustomed to the new look. After all, Pepsi has had some failure in trying to change the formula in the past so this is a pretty big step for them. A brave move which I respect. The ads are all over the city, on top of taxi's, you name it. They are vibrant and unmissable. The words inspire cheer and are definitely riding the Obama wave that he may indeed refresh everything. It's also simple, which is good because we all know what Pepsi is. Don't overcomplicate our lives.

Additionally, as a copywriter, I think it's brilliant to associate a list of words directly to Pepsi. Maybe next time I hear hooray or howdy, I will think of Pepsi. Ok, maybe I'll never hear anyone saying hooray or howdy, but my point is that word association is smart. I applaud TBWA/Chiat for this. My irritation came when I saw their new campaign for Gatorade.



TBWA,who recently got the Gatorade account in April from Element 79, was not content with just rebranding Pepsi, but they wanted to rebrand Gatorade too, which is part of Pepsi Co. Ok, so kudos to Pepsi Co. for having such big balls in 2009, but wouldn't they realize the similarities in advertising between two products in the same company? I saw a bunch of bus shelter posters today for Gatorade today when I was driving to school. They were using the same vibrant colors in the background and white letters that said "no excuses", "shine on", and "be tough". My friend (who's in advertising) saw them too. He thought they were part of the Pepsi campaign. Granted the Gatorade ones don't have the logo replacing the O's, but it's confusing. A single phrase in a white font over a colorful background for two different beverages under the same company seems pretty ridiculous. Is that all TBWA has graphically? If it's confusing for my ad friend, imagine for regular consumers. Comm checks anyone? If they were different agencies, then maybe it would be coincidence, but from the same one? Come on guys.

I get the Gatorade rebranding. I kind of like it. I like the fact that I can refer to my flavor as "no excuses" instead of "rain". Gatorade has always been about going the extra mile in athletic competition. I don't like that it's not Gatorade anymore though. It's 'G'. It's nothing but a g thing now. This brings me to my next point. While I kind of like the repackaging of 'G', I absolutely hate the TV executions. Watch it below.



What's G? Who knows? Many people had to look it up on Google: the other big G. Gatorade is for athletes. Why are the Jabba Wockees on there? Probably just to throw us off. And why is Lil' Wayne the voice over. Are you serious? How is he shedding a positive light on the G brand? If anything, he's really making G stand for gangsta. His raps are ludicrously vulgar. That's who G wants to voice their product. I read another blog that said Lil' Wayne was the voice of our generation. If people in my generation believe that then I'm ashamed to be a part of it.

Overall, I prefer Coke anyways so I'll keep drinking that. Speaking of which, they also have changed their brand identity from "the Coke side of life" to "open happiness", but that's another blog. Point is that Obama promised change and we're starting to see change even in our favorite beverages.

There's nothing Mini about this

Find more videos like this on AdGabber


Note: Watch the video or you won't know what I'm talking about.

This is pretty huge. Can you imagine how far we can take advertising with this type of technology? All of the sudden the media space on the back cover of a magazine has gotten much more valuable. It's no longer a 3 seconds glance. It could be a 3 minute interaction with a consumer. That's not mini...that's HUGE!!!! Despite my excitement over this technology, I have to raid this party with some reality.

I was reading the first chapter of Truth, Lies, and Advertising today for my account planning class and there was an excerpt about efficiency and effectiveness, which I would like to share. In the 30's in the Soviet Union, Stalin assigned production targets to factories that they would need to reach or face severe consequences. You can imagine the pressure. A steel mill was given a production target for nails in weight not quantity. In fear for their lives, they didn't make a lot of nails, they just made huge nails. Some of them were even three feet in length. Completely useless but nonetheless, they met the weight requirements that were asked and lived to nail another day. This is a clear example of something that was efficient , but not effective. The nails went straight to the garbage.

As I saw the Mini ad, I thought to myself whether this was either one of those. Well it is definitely effective. You can get a complete 3D view of a car from the comfort of your own home. Oh how we love to make you lazier don't we? As if the drive to the Mini dealership was going to kill you. Either way, I'm having a few problems getting my mind around this. It seems to me that the actual creation of the 3D model took quite some time and money to make. The production value on this must be insane. I'm assuming. I don't know the price, but I would venture to say that it's pretty high. Plus, what if I don't have a Logitech webcam on my computer? Then it's just a lame looking print ad. It's not cool unless I actually engage in the activity, which means that the eyeball count isn't the same as for a regular print ad where I get the message right away. Measurability is going to be a factor.

Artistically, it's mind-blowing, but we are not in the business of selling art. As Truth, Lies, and Advertising says "art is a means to sell our product, but the art alone isn't enough." Our business is to sell product and sometimes art gets us there. This ad will probably win something at Cannes for interactivity, but ultimately will it sell more Minis? That's the objective. As advertisers, our duty is to make the most effective campaign using the clients money. This look like it took a lot of money out of the Mini budget. I'm not necessarily taking sides.

If someone was thinking so economically then this cool ad wouldn't have been brought into being and I wouldn't be having this discussion in the first place. They would have done some TV and print and wham, bam, thank you mam! Sometimes that still works. Emphasis on the sometimes. In a way this ad is succeeding in many other ways. For one, I'm blogging about it. So are a bunch of other people. I was exposed to the ad without even purchasing the magazine the ad was in. Buzz counts too.

I guess we'll see how effective it was eventually, but for now I'm in a tug-o-war on this one.

Guitar Hero vs. Rock Band

As I walked through Best Buy to purchase my copy of Pineapple Express (that’s my product placement of the day), I came across a display that made me stop before I got into the line to pay. I’m not sure if I would have stopped if it wasn’t for the purpose of this exercise, but because of it I found something interesting. I’m having trouble trying to pinpoint exactly what the display was for because it did not showcase a product. It showcased two. The products were Guitar Hero and Rock Band. It was clearly not advocating one or the other and I wasn’t too sure if Best Buy did that intentionally or it just seemed convenient to promote the category altogether.

This led me to realize the true nature of Best Buy as a company and why so many people prefer it. Best Buy is quite literally there to provide the best buy for your buck. They don’t take sides and their employees don’t have an agenda, which makes consumers feel pretty good. Consumers can ask an employee for an opinion and expect to get a pretty honest answer. That’s really what people that shop at Best Buy want: objectivity.

The Guitar Hero/ Rock Band display is a pretty accurate manifestation of Best Buy’s objectivity. Which game is better? They’ll let you decide. Try them both and make a choice, because choice is essentially what makes us human.

This is where our specialty comes in. In the event that two competitive products are placed next to each other in a retail setting, advertising should be one of the deciding factors in a consumer’s preference. To be honest, I think the advertising on both sides has been short of spectacular, which leaves content as the last remaining factor in our decision.
It used to be that Guitar Hero was pure guitar work and Rock Band came in with a more inclusive product in which you could play the guitar as well as the drums and sing. That distinction was eradicated when Guitar Hero launched World Tour and added drums and a microphone to their entourage. Now we have two identical products that are only separated by their set list, and isn’t that a whole can of worms?

People like different types of music, so if the music on the game is the only thing determining whether I’ll buy Guitar Hero or Rock Band, then I think that’s a pretty big problem. What did I get from the packaging? The fact that I realized I liked songs on both games? How can I push one game over the other if there’s no unique selling proposition? Pepsi and Coke are practically identical but at least they taste different. For some reason, after I played both Guitar Hero and Rock Band at Best Buy, I had the same taste in my mouth.

These products need a makeover because they are too similar. Maybe if I were allowed to pick what songs I wanted on my game from a list of them, then I would get exactly what I paid for. Consumers are getting used to choice. They can customize their Facebook pages and iPhone apps however they like. Someone do something about these video game Nazis telling us what songs to play in “our band.” Ultimately, I couldn’t decide, so you’ll see both Guitar Hero and Rock Band at my house, which doesn’t say much about brand equity.

My Hiatus

So I haven't written in a while but it hasn't been out of laziness. I did two back-to-back internships at Zubi Advertising and Crispin Porter + Bogusky and I respect their confidentiality agreements. I didn't want to be blogging about all the cool shit I was doing and then get the boot. I respect their privacy and the trust they place on us as interns.

I will say that they were both equally amazing places to work at and I learned a lot from both. Zubi taught me the meaning of hard work. Very late nights and multiple rounds of creative slapped me across the face with the hand of reality. I still want to do this, which was also an important revelation after all that. I even had a late night encounter with Joe Zubi himself the night before the client presentation, which I'll never forget.

CPB taught me to never limit myself. Advertising is not what it used to be. TV, Radio, and Print are a thing of the past and there are many more ways available to reach consumers that we must take into account. Facebook widgets, iPhone apps and even Tivo are all open for the taking. Being a copywriter just got a whole lot more exciting.

Anyways, I'm back in the game and anyone that may like my train of thought is welcome to subscribe to my blog. I'll post a lot of my opinion and general things I find interesting. I started Miami Ad School now so I should have a lot to talk about.