PepsiCo enhances its "digital fitness"
Posted by Turgut Ziyal on Monday, April 11, 2011
Under: consumer research
PepsiCo is endeavouring to enhance its "digital fitness" as a means of connecting with shoppers in new ways.
Speaking at the annual South by Southwest Interactive event, Bonin Bough, the company's global digital and social media director, argued there is an urgent need for change among marketers. "The pace of innovation is happening at a rate we've never seen. The pace of consumer adoption is happening at a rate we've never seen," he said. As evidence of this shift, Bough pointed out that more applications from Apple's App Store will be downloaded this month than music from its iTunes service. "Digital is society," he continued. "We are rapidly becoming a society that is 100% digital."
The Pepsi Refresh Project, a largely online venture asking netizens to submit, and vote for, schemes rejuvenating local communities, is an example of how these areas are increasingly coming together. "Digital is at the heart of our consumers, and it needs to be at the heart of our brand," Bough said. "When you look at the companies that are winning, the ones that are winning have an iterative mindset." Previously, individuals originally experienced emerging gadgets, software and similar innovations while in the office or at college, but that is clearly no longer the case. "What's interesting is that society used to be a late adopter, and most people's first interaction with technology was inside of some organisation," Bough said. "The moment technologies became mobile and social, and the moment they began to look more like society does, they took off." Indeed, such is the speed of this evolution that many advertisers now lag behind their target audience when allocating marketing budgets and developing communications programmes. "We are in a situation where there's actually a gap between where society is and where organisations are," warned Bough. "And that's what we have to think about. How do we close that gap? How do we get organisations to digitally adapt? How do we get them to survive?" In answering these questions, Bough unveiled a broad framework that new media specialists can apply to drive progress. "Digital fitness is the ability to adapt to changes in the digital environment," he said. "You do digital fitness in the same way you do physical fitness." "It requires training, commitment. It requires rigour. It requires you to push beyond the point of when you want to say no." "We are digital fitness instructors pushing organisations beyond the point where they want to say no."
The recently-concluded PepsiCo 10 initiative requested potential partners to provide innovative ideas covering place-based, experiential and social marketing, alongside video and gaming. It chose ten firms to work with, including AisleBuyer, using smartphone technology in stores, Miso, combining Web 2.0 "check-ins" with TV shows, and BreakoutBand, allowing teens to create "virtual bands". "One of the things that we try to do is focus on platforms like PepsiCo 10, which is really about bringing culture change," said Bough. Another transformation that will be necessary is building systems capable of monitoring and leverage the "power of global conversations". "We have global brands," said Bough. "What does it mean for brands to exist beyond borders? What does it means for conversations around those brands to exist beyond borders. I think it's a huge next-level thing."
Speaking at the annual South by Southwest Interactive event, Bonin Bough, the company's global digital and social media director, argued there is an urgent need for change among marketers. "The pace of innovation is happening at a rate we've never seen. The pace of consumer adoption is happening at a rate we've never seen," he said. As evidence of this shift, Bough pointed out that more applications from Apple's App Store will be downloaded this month than music from its iTunes service. "Digital is society," he continued. "We are rapidly becoming a society that is 100% digital."
The Pepsi Refresh Project, a largely online venture asking netizens to submit, and vote for, schemes rejuvenating local communities, is an example of how these areas are increasingly coming together. "Digital is at the heart of our consumers, and it needs to be at the heart of our brand," Bough said. "When you look at the companies that are winning, the ones that are winning have an iterative mindset." Previously, individuals originally experienced emerging gadgets, software and similar innovations while in the office or at college, but that is clearly no longer the case. "What's interesting is that society used to be a late adopter, and most people's first interaction with technology was inside of some organisation," Bough said. "The moment technologies became mobile and social, and the moment they began to look more like society does, they took off." Indeed, such is the speed of this evolution that many advertisers now lag behind their target audience when allocating marketing budgets and developing communications programmes. "We are in a situation where there's actually a gap between where society is and where organisations are," warned Bough. "And that's what we have to think about. How do we close that gap? How do we get organisations to digitally adapt? How do we get them to survive?" In answering these questions, Bough unveiled a broad framework that new media specialists can apply to drive progress. "Digital fitness is the ability to adapt to changes in the digital environment," he said. "You do digital fitness in the same way you do physical fitness." "It requires training, commitment. It requires rigour. It requires you to push beyond the point of when you want to say no." "We are digital fitness instructors pushing organisations beyond the point where they want to say no."
The recently-concluded PepsiCo 10 initiative requested potential partners to provide innovative ideas covering place-based, experiential and social marketing, alongside video and gaming. It chose ten firms to work with, including AisleBuyer, using smartphone technology in stores, Miso, combining Web 2.0 "check-ins" with TV shows, and BreakoutBand, allowing teens to create "virtual bands". "One of the things that we try to do is focus on platforms like PepsiCo 10, which is really about bringing culture change," said Bough. Another transformation that will be necessary is building systems capable of monitoring and leverage the "power of global conversations". "We have global brands," said Bough. "What does it mean for brands to exist beyond borders? What does it means for conversations around those brands to exist beyond borders. I think it's a huge next-level thing."
In : consumer research
Tags: pepsico
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