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c h a p t e r7:FIVE ESSENTIAL TIPS■Importantly, engagement readily happens in the places where consumers and
stakeholders naturally associate (which is why they join up and spend time there).
Thought leaders like Jeff Jarvis talk about engaging customers on their terms, as an
alternative to traditionally controlled forms of media: Pepsi elected not to participate
in Super Bowl XLIV (That’s “44” for non-Romans). The Super Bowl is an event where
millions of consumers gather in no small part to watch the ads (along with some
football).
In an advertisers’ context, the Super Bowl is considered as a sort of crown jewel,
and it is often a career make-or-break opportunity given the correlation—for the pres-
ent anyway—between ad and media budgets and advertiser and media planner career
trajectories. In a bit of a challenge to this, Pepsi is looking to expand its highly inte-
grated program in the direction of increasingly social connection points: marketing
touchpoints that put consumers in near-direct control of the tangible expression of the
brand message in their world. Programs like Pepsi’s Refresh project, while still built
around a multimillion dollar budget, channel spending into social projects that con-
sumers suggest and vote on. This program directly defines the Pepsi brand according to
the lifestyles, passions, and causes of its customers rather than those of its ad agencies.
If that last line sounds harsh, consider the millions of dollars spent over the past
ten years on Super Bowl ads that consumers, by their own words, simply “did not get.”
Pepsi’s Refresh avoids this fate by asking its customers directly “What do YOU want us
to do to make our brand relevant in YOUR life?” This is the “higher calling” that was
referenced in Figure 3.3.
Pepsi’s Refresh project, shown in Figure 7.2, along with its Juice program inte-
grated into BlogHer (covered in detail in Chapter 3, “Building a Social Business”) are
solid examples of moving toward a participant-controlled social marketing and busi-
ness orientation that encourages collaboration.
Social programs in organizations like Pepsi, Starbucks, and Dell go beyond
awareness (consumption) and instead push for collaboration between the businesses
and their marketplace stakeholders. They are part of an overall, holistic marketing
program. Programs like Pepsi’s “Refresh,” Starbucks’ “My Starbucks Ideas,” and Dell’s
“Take Your Own Path”—each different in its approach and use of social technology—
connect the brands into the specific communities where customers and potential cus-
tomers are found. Curation, along with basic content creation, occurs naturally in
these communities, making them ideal for participative marketing efforts and the use
of social technology.
Building on consumption, curation, and content creation, collaboration is the
end objective in the process of creating advocates, evangelists, and brand ambassadors.
Getting people in your audience to work together collaboratively is very powerful.
Working together to produce a common outcome, participants around your brand,
product, or service bond with each other; and as they do, they develop a strong loyalty
for the communities in which they are able to collaborate.