Did you hear the news? Pepsi is putting an end to all of its advertising and marketing forever. No more movie product placements, no more billboards and no more commercials. And with no mention of a social media budget, they are basically shattering not only the traditional media stigma, but every stigma known to the marketing and advertising industry.Ok. So that’s not entirely accurate. Though a crazy concept, that idea simply comes from the ever-satirical (and never serious) online newspaper, The Onion. The “news” story can be found here and is worth reading in its entirety, but, for now, it has inspired a serious discussion in the Deep Bench office and we’d love to hear your take on it.
What WOULD happen if Pepsi pulled its entire, $1.3 billion (yes, BILLION) marketing budget and stopped running ads? Would their sales and profits plummet to depths not even Alvin could reach in search of the Titanic? Would Pepsi’s sales merely remain consistent or only slightly below where they were before? Or would sales, by some strange phenomenon, skyrocket (and steadily maintain that skyrocketed…ness)?
The questions are nearly mind-boggling. In the event that sales plummeted, would companies increase their marketing/advertising budgets after seeing how important marketing is? If Pepsi’s sales remained the same as they’ve been, would companies take note and cut off high budget media buys and traditional media efforts knowing the sales don’t drop?
Other questions could also be discussed. Would social media fall into the $1.3 billion budget cut or would Pepsi be able to aim an unprecedented and unparalleled focus at the social media space? What chaos would that incite? Would it finally be an opportunity for PR pros to earn their proper respect by demonstrating the true power of weapons like free media coverage and word-of-mouth efforts?
Or would Pepsi simply fall off the face of the earth entirely, left to suffer the fates of OK Soda and Pepsi’s gone-but-never-forgotten offspring, Crystal Pepsi?
What do you think? Weigh in with your thoughts in the comments below or join the discussion on our Facebook page. The topic is a fascinating one to us and we’d love to hear your insight on the concept.
Photo by laverrue.
This post was written by me and originally appeared on my work blog at www.thedeepbench.com.
