Has Pepsi Adopted Crowdfunding Principles?

Pepsi have been looking at developments in our fledgling industry and decided to tiptoe gingerly into it by redirecting their annual $20mil splurge of National Bowl advertising by asking THE CROWD where to spend this money through their PEPSI REFRESH PROJECT.

Will at Crowdfundingcentral looks at the implications:

Have Pepsi gone altruistic? Yes -if you think that your teeth don’t rust. They think that that something is rumbling in the hills.Pepsi spent $33 million on Super Bowl advertising last year, and the Refresh Project will cost $20 million. Instead of blowing this big wedge of green bills on a single night of excess they have decided to touch the hearts of millions more, add to the corporate image and spend the Corporate Sociability Fund with the Power of the Crowd. Pepsi’s corporate social responsibility play will attract engaged participants throughout the year to the Refresh Project site. It may change the perception of Pepsi as a company that instead of contributing to child obesity contributes to  society.

This is a radical departure from their traditional donation practice and heralds a vanguard for others. PEPSI’s move is part of growing trend of Online Philanthropy Engagement and other companies are in on the act including American Express. They are adopting a Crowdfunding approach where the crowd influences the focus of charitable donations.

Pepsi is using an open call to help attract charities and then an open call to allocate available funds from the Crowd. This will help the project to build an engaged crowd and it will make people feel part of the Pepsi experience!  Will it sell more Pepsi? Probably not, but the company is addressing corporate social responsibility goals and making this a marketing win. They are acting as a responsible corporate citizen in a very difficult economic downturn to altruistic concerns in environment, charity and healthcare ; Pepsi will win supporters.

When major corporations like PEPSI are adopting Crowdfunding techniques then you can be sure their previous support mechanisms are wanting.  This is good news for us Crowdfunders and reinforces the progress of our movement. Other companies will follow and it is important that a forum for discussion be established where both Crowdfunders and Crowdfunded can interact.

This is available here at Crowdfundunding central where you can pass on comments on this month’s discussion or pose questions that you want answered by our growing community

Will at crowdfundingcentral is looking for more examples. Help him out!