Pepsi Shifting NFL Ad Dollars Online

In what may be a mini ‘bell weather moment’ in advertising, Pepsi has decided to keep its usual Super Bowl advertising money in its bank account. While they are not exactly saving it they are certainly redirecting it to online opportunities. I say this is a potential ‘bell weather’ moment because it ends a streak of 23 consecutive years where Pepsi has advertised during the event that attracts some of the largest viewing audiences in the history of television.

So what is Pepsi saying with this move? It’s more like a question they are asking the NFL and the advertising world that has made such a big fuss over Super Bowl ads for years: Where’s the value? Not to worry about the NFL though because they are still getting Pepsi-bucks……just not in a big chunk for the big game. Compete tells a little more

Pepsi is already a large sponsor of the NFL, having paid millions back in 2002 to replace Coke for the title of the official soft drink of the NFL. The company also sponsors Rookie of the Week section on NFL.com.

So the big moment is more about the how Pepsi is deciding to spend its money rather than with whom. The NFL is a marketing juggernaut (I had to use that word before the close of 2009) and will remain so. Even the NFL though is going to have to adjust to the dollars that are moving online that once fueled the just as important Super Bowl activity of watching and rating the advertisements. If last year was any indication that ‘pastime’ may be on the decline as well as many companies didn’t even create specific ads for the big game but simply rehashed old ones. Kinda takes the fun out of it, doesn’t it?

So why is Pepsi seeing the online space as the way to go? Compete shows a little data below that may become the new version of the old ‘Pepsi Taste Challenge”.

Even more interesting are the differences in competitive share of visitors to Pepsi and Coke sites between control and exposed consumers. Among the control group, Pepsi captures only 16% of visitors versus a lion’s share of 84% for Coke. However, the numbers are completely reversed among the exposed group.

So what is your thought about the days of the big Super Bowl advertising buys and the excitement around the creativity of the ads? Are the days of Super Bowl ads being a huge deal going the same way as my NY Giants (meaning directly south and in the toilet)?

Your thoughts?

Comments

Google Asks For Help With Transcriptions

Although spell checkers have been around for about 30 years, they still miss or incorrectly flag a whole lot of stuff (try "eye wonder weather this is write" and "monetize").  Google wants its transcription software to become better more quickly, and so is asking for users for a hand.

On the Google Voice Blog, Vincent Paquet, a senior product manager, recently wrote, "Until now, the only feedback you could give was to let us know if the quality of the transcript was good enough to be useful or not, by checking the corresponding box next to the message.  You can now go one step further by letting us figure out why it was good or bad.  When you rate a transcript, you will be asked whether you would like to donate the message."

Paquet then explained the meaning behind that phrase by continuing, "The messages you donate may be listened to, manually transcribed by us and/or used to gauge transcription improvements over time, but they will never be made public or used for any other purpose than improving the transcription quality."

For every Margaret who's tired of being called "maggot rot" and Taylor who doesn't make clothes for a living, this is a nice option.  Even people who don't opt to donate messages may appreciate it, since it reinforces the idea that Google doesn't eavesdrop on conversations by default.

One other important note: this may represent a step towards launching Google Voice in the U.K. and Australia.

Have You Read This?

> Google Voice Gets New Free VoIP Service

> Report Indicates Google Bought Gizmo5

> You Don't Need A Google Number To Use Google Voice

Yahoo Go To Get The Boot

Yahoo Go, a mobile application that links users to a number of different services (including mail, news, and weather), is going to cease doing much of anything in the near future.  Yahoo has decided to concentrate its mobile efforts elsewhere.

In an email sent to Yahoo Go users, the company announced, "Yahoo! Go will be discontinued on January 12, 2010, at 12:00 a.m. PST, so that we may focus on simplifying and enhancing your future mobile Web experiences.  After this date, you will no longer be able to use Yahoo! Go 2.0 or 3.0 from your mobile phone."

The email then plugged Yahoo Go's effective replacement, m.yahoo.com, continuing, "We encourage you to visit the new mobile homepage from your mobile browser to access an even richer, more personalized Yahoo! experience."

This move makes a great deal of sense for Yahoo.  Yahoo Go's more than a little basic compared to all of the smartphone-optimized stuff that's now available, meaning most phone owners have almost surely given up on it already.  And those that haven't will be forced to by dying hardware sooner or later, anyway.

Yahoo Go joins a long list of Yahoo products and services that have recently been closed for the sake of conserving resources, including Briefcase, FareChase, and Geocities.

Have You Read This?

> Yahoo And Microsoft May Be Close To Signing

> Winner Of Yahoo Yodeling Contest Announced

> Yahoo Launches Spanish Version Of Mobile Home Page

 

 

CNN Launches APP For The iPhone

CNN has released its new iPhone App and its hoping users will be willing to pay $1.99 to download it.

The CNN APP highlights news via text, video and photos. It features breaking news video, push notification, localization and personalization tools.

One of the more interesting features of the APP is that it provides access to CNN's iReport. Users can upload photos and videos directly to iReport.com. They can also browse user-generated content and check on iReport's latest "assignments" asking for contributions on news stories.

Other CNN App features include:

• Users can flick through news stories across categories. When the device is turned horizontally, stories can be flipped through quickly.
• Each story features bulleted highlights above the full article for scanning.
• Users can share stories via email, SMS, Twitter and Facebook Connect by posting a story directly to their wall.
• Local news, weather and traffic based on the user's actual location or the ability to select a location.
• Users can follow a story or topic as CNN publishes breaking news alerts or new stories related to a chose topic, the app will automatically push the updates to the device.
• There is also a "Saved" content feature, which allows users to access text stories even when they're offline.

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