New Delhi: PepsiCo India has hopped onto the UGC (user generated content) bandwagon in India and has invited people to create ads for it that will be aired during the telecast of the next edition of the Indian Premier League Twenty20 tournament in April.
Pepsi, which, according to media buyers spends around Rs.250-300 crore on advertising across media every year, is the title sponsor of IPL, which has a TV viewership of 250 million.
“This (Crowdsourcing) is the way forward. The 1990s were all about “tell me, show me” advertising, the early 2000s were about the consumers saying “let’s have a dialogue through the Internet”. Now the consumer says “partner with me; it’s my brand”. That’s especially true for Pepsi. Our most cherished asset is our advertising, and we are looking for quality interactions with the consumers,” said Vipul Prakash, chief marketing officer at PepsiCo India.
A company-appointed jury will pick six 30 second ads that will be aired and whose creators will receive Rs.100,000 each. The brand has created a website specifically for this campaign providing resources such as branding shots, music and sound effects, and shots of brand ambassador Ranbir Kapoor.
People can also submit their videos through YouTube.
The idea, which will be used for Pepsi’s eponymous cola brand here, has been borrowed from the popular “Crash the Superbowl” campaign that one of its global brands Doritos runs.
Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL), Zomato, Hyundai, and some government departments have used the UGC route before. In 2011, HUL, whose liquid detergent brand Surf Excel was running a “Dirt is Good campaign” at the time, invited children to write stories about their own “dirt is good” experiences; eight of these stories were picked and made into short ad films by those children with help and assistance from professional directors.
In July 2014, the Narendra Modi-led NDA government took to crowdsourcing ads to pep up staid government advertising on the occasion of Independence Day. The government wants to connect with the people for creative ideas for all mandatory ads of public significance.
The idea is to change the way the government communicates with the nation; government advertising on national holidays such as Independence Day or Republic Day typically features stock pictures of political leaders greeting the people with banal messages and some generic bragging.
An advertising executive said that while crowdsourcing is a great engagement tool it is not one for brand marketing.
“It’s a great engagement idea but it’s not a brand idea. The quality of responses you’ll get will not be benchmark material. What Pepsi is doing is a new take on an old idea,” said Prathap Suthan, managing partner and chief creative officer at advertising agency, Bang in the Middle.
