SUPER BOWL XLVI: Pepsi Gets Medieval With Elton John Super Bowl Spot

'X Factor' Winner Melanie Amaro Sings for Her Soda

Pepsi, the choice of a new generation, may look like its going old-school in its return to the Super Bowl, what with the castle and court and all. But there's a certain "Hunger Games" vibe to the spot, which stars Elton John, "X Factor" winner Melanie Amaro and a special cameo at the end. Spot fromTBWA/Chiat/Day, Los Angeles.

Major Changes at PepsiCo as Marketing Department Reorganizes

Jill Beraud Leaving as Brad Jakeman Joins, Simon Lowden Gets New Role

PepsiCo is undergoing a major transformation in its beverage marketing ranks.

The company is restructuring its marketing department to include three new marketing roles, with an eye toward embracing a more global approach. The three executives, expected to be two external candidates and one internal candidate, will take on various duties handled by Jill Beraud, chief marketing officer-PepsiCo Beverages America. Ms. Beraud has chosen to leave the company amid the restructuring, according to executives close to PepsiCo.

Brad Jakeman, who gaming giant Activision Blizzard confirmed today had left his role as exec VP-CMO, will be taking on the role of head marketer for the Pepsi trademark globally. According to executives familiar with the matter, his new role will involve responsibility for Pepsi, Diet Pepsi and Pepsi Max, primarily, though he will also be working on the company's other soft-drink brands, such as Mtn Dew and Sierra Mist.

A second executive is expected to be the global chief marketer for beverage brands, not including carbonated soft drinks, Gatorade or Tropicana. That would leave brands such as SoBe, Aquafina and Propel. Simon Lowden, who currently has a chief marketer role for Pepsi International, is said to be taking on the role of CMO for the U.S. beverages business.

According to the executives, PepsiCo plans to announce the moves in the coming weeks. It's most likely that all three executives will report to Massimo d'Amore, CEO-PepsiCo Beverages America, in some fashion. A PepsiCo spokesman declined to comment.

The moves position PepsiCo to embrace more global ad executions, a key differentiator between it and rival Coca-Cola. In the last several years, Coca-Cola has embraced a more global approach, for example, in 2008 running Olympic-themed ads from Wieden & Kennedy in at least 25 countries, while 150 countries used some element of the Olympic campaign. And, most recently, Fanta launched a campaign in 190 countries. Coca-Cola has also trimmed its global agency roster from 82 creative agencies to a number in the 30s.

PepsiCo, by comparison, executes in a more local or regional fashion. For example, while its new logo rolled out in the U.S. in late 2008, the company continued to run ads featuring the old logo six months later overseas. BBDO handles Pepsi outside of the U.S., while TBWA/Chiat/Day handles it stateside. OMD handles media globally. A PepsiCo spokesman declined to comment on what any potential restructuring could mean for its agencies.

Pepsi and Diet Pepsi have both been losing ground. In 2010, Pepsi's share of the soft-drink market fell 0.4%, allowing Diet Coke to move past it as the second biggest soft drink brand in the U.S. Diet Pepsi saw its share fall 0.3% last year, according to Beverage Digest. Other brands, including Mtn Dew and SoBe have been strong performers, however. Still, acknowledging the need for an increased marketing presence, PepsiCo announced this spring that it would ramp up ad spending across its beverage portfolio by 30% this year. That will include new ads for Pepsi, Diet Pepsi and Gatorade. The company is also sinking $60 million into its sponsorship and integration with "X Factor," the Simon Cowell-created music competition that is meant to compete with "American Idol," which is sponsored by Coke.

Ms. Beraud was brought in as the global CMO for PepsiCo in late 2008 but was shifted in mid-2009 to head marketing for the beverages division when Dave Burwick departed. It's not clear where Ms. Beraud will be headed. She joined PepsiCo from Limited Brands, parent of Victoria's Secret, where she spent 13 years. Ms. Beraud was named an Ad Age Woman to Watch in 2009. At the time, she called the global CMO role exciting and intriguing, noting that she had admired PepsiCo from afar for years.

Why Brands Are The New Labels (And Publishers, And Producers...)

A stand out panel at SXSW 2011, Brands as the New Labels, found particular resonance this year. Of course this isn't exactly a new trend -- big brands, particularly ones focused on the youth markets, have traditionally been responsible for helping to amplify the hottest new music. Red Bull, Mountain Dew and Heineken are all great examples of brands that are winning by shifting dollars towards breaking acts, and experimenting with marketing campaigns and programs.

Gone are the days of artists hoping and praying for that major studio deal -- which later they learn isn’t really that major. Instead they can take a paycheck from a brand and get pretty much the same thing as what they would get from your typical 360 deal offering. In fact, brands are finding success with this new approach. Green Label Sound, Mountain Dew’s exclusive label designed to “empower independent artist,” releases singles, videos and remixes by buzz bands: Matt & Kim, Neon Indian, Chromeo, Cool Kids and Theopolis London. And, it appears that The Cool Kids prefer working with a brand: "Labels suck," the Cool Kids' Chuck Inglish says with a laugh. "What can they do that Pepsi can't do? We had a good experience with Green Label Sound -- we got more from that single than we got from our previous album. I was tired of the album sitting around and just wanted to get it out."

After a recent trip to Red Bull Headquarters in Los Angeles, I think an artist might be better off signing with a brand anyway. The offices are certainly more fun! Last time I visited Warner Bros, I didn’t see a half pipe in the office, or days dedicated to office-wide ping-pong tournaments. Plus, these brands are better positioned to market talent, as they can put a hefty budget behind their efforts. Red Bull produces several impressive signature events that drive tons of awareness online and IRL. And because the advertiser is also the label, they can be very strategic in their approach. Talk about brand integration… this is the 2.0 world.

My other takeaway from SXSW 2011 was the realization that brand dollars don’t stop with the cultivating of new talent. Brands are positioning themselves as the new labels, no doubt, but they are also evolving into the content creators. There is, naturally, criticism of branded entertainment – it is necessarily the opposite of arms-length, unbiased reporting - but as the digital landscape has changed media integration, it has also increased consumer tolerance for brands looking for new ways to market. And if you want high quality content -- whether that is music or print or video -- someone needs to pay. So, brands are stepping up as the new content publishers. They are still paying to be part of the story but now they are also experimenting with creating and distributing their own stories, too. Case in point: media personality Shira Lazar covered the festival for Chevy, and Fuse TV’s Allison Hagendorf brought an inside look at SXSW for Nikon. (Full disclosure, my company IRL Productions produced the daily recap Nikon videos, included below.)


#SXSWNikon with Allison Hagendorf - Day 5 from Nikon SXSW on Vimeo.


Early tech-adopter brand PepsiCo is trying out this approach, as well, seeding blog posts and videos on their employee blog and Women’s Inspiration Network (WIN). PepsiCo’s Jamie Stein did double-duty as host, generating a significant amount of video and blog content over the course of the festival. Pepsi also ran a “Davos of Digital” series of web interviews leading up to SXSW. (More disclosure: I work with Pepsi on many digital projects, though I did not work with them on these particular projects at SXSW.)

On a larger level, brands are making a point of generating content on social sites as well – not just twitter and facebook (a must by this point for most big brands), but taking advantage of new intimate-feeling platforms like Instagram (NBCNews) and Bntr (HowAboutWe, Zappos). Brands are going everywhere their customers are, and might soon be.

So what does it all mean? Traditional media is rapidly changing across every industry. Many industries are still behind the times -- music, book publishing, TV and cable - and getting up this new curve. Despite all the amazing innovation we have out there, it's still anyone's game on how to monetize. There are marketers everywhere taking risks and changing games – and new platforms to change them on. A sign of the changing times are New York Subway platform advertisements, encouraging riders to scan this QR code, follow on Twitter and "friend" on Facebook. Even as short as six months ago, those messages weren't as prominent.

At the March 2011 Shorty Awards, Foursquare Founder Dennis Crowley pointed out that he saw an ad on TV encouraging people to discover the song in the Old Navy ad using Shazam. The call-to-action is then obvious: Purchase on iTunes. Old Navy, Apple, a digital startup and an emerging artist all working together as one? That's some epic progress – over some pretty blurry lines. Expect more of this going forward.

A Brief History of Product Placement in Movies Edited by Oliver Noble

Starbucks' New Logo Signals Intent to 'Think Beyond Coffee'

CEO Howard Schultz Promises New Product Offerings in Spring

CHICAGO (AdAge.com) -- Starbucks Corp. today unveiled the latest iteration of its logo -- a move that CEO Howard Schultz said signaled the java giant's intent to "think beyond coffee."

Starbucks revealed the logo -- which drops the green ring with the text "Starbucks Coffee" and more prominently displays its famed siren -- to employees in its Seattle offices and on a webcast. Mr. Schultz said in a video post on the company's website that while allowing the siren to come out of the circle indicates Starbucks' intention to broaden its focus, "make no mistake: We have been, we will continue to be and we always will be, the world's leading purveyor of the highest-quality coffee."




In a blog post today, Mr. Schultz said: "Starbucks will continue to offer the highest-quality coffee, but we will offer other products as well. ... You'll begin to see our evolution starting this spring." He didn't say what products were in the offing, but it's clear the company has had its sights set on being more than a coffee chain for a while. It is once again selling breakfast sandwiches, which were once banned because the smell supposedly infringed on the coffeehouse atmosphere.

The new logo is part of a celebration of Starbucks' 40th year, and it is the fourth in the company's history. Starbucks revamped the logo in 1987 by dropping the brown and embracing green; it also changed the formerly bare-breasted siren to a more modest sea nymph. The company again modified the logo in 1992.

There have been a number of high-profile logo changes in the past few years; Pepsi-Cola, Tropicana and Gap all tweaked their iconic symbols. Notably, all have received further tweaks since the initial rollouts. Pepsi-Cola, which initially rolled out three different smiling logos, scaled back to just one. Tropicana reverted to its straw-in-an-orange imagery after consumer outcry and a drop in sales. And Gap quickly scrapped plans to roll out a new identity when consumers panned the logo's Helvetica font and gradiated blue box online.

An Ipsos Observer poll conducted by Ad Age in the midst of the Gap logo debacle showed that more than half of consumers expect companies to ask for the public's input before making a major change to its logo, packaging or product. Thirty-six percent said they didn't expect that, and 12% said they weren't sure.

Starbucks appears to have put a great deal of thought into the logo rollout: Mr. Schultz scheduled a call with associates, and the company posted a video explaining the change as well as a post on its website. Even so, consumers are generally quick to judge a logo change. "If you ask customers what they think, they'll say a logo change is just a logo change," said Tony Spaeth, president of Tony Spaeth/Identity. "It's easy for people to demean a logo change. Does that really reflect their genuine perception of Starbucks? I don't think so."

Brand consultant Denise Lee Yohn said consumers are "always resistant to change, and given what happened with the Gap logo, there's probably going to be a backlash in the social-media world." Sure enough, there were a few dissenters, with some tweeting comments such as, "Starbucks has to be feeling pretty confident to drop name from new logo" and "Is new Starbucks going to last as long as the new Gap logo?"

Mr. Spaeth said he thinks the Starbucks logo rollout will fare much better than the Gap logo debacle. "The big difference is that Gap management didn't really understand the significance of what they were doing and that the public was interested. Howard Schultz is very much on top of this and regards this as a very significant step forward. It's being undertaken with supreme confidence and pride."

Pepsi Max Presents... A Christmas Story from Snoop Dogg

DAVE CHAPPELLE "PEPSI COMMERCIAL"

NIGEL SYLVESTER X GATORADE :: GO ALL DAY

Gatorade Go All Day the night episode - More BMX Videos

WAVE FESTIVAL

RIO DE JANEIRO (AdAge.com) -- Latin America's Wave Festival this week saw a 40% increase in entries as at least some awards festivals seem to be recovering from last year's steep drop due to the global recession. The big winners from Latin America include PepsiCo's name-changing "Pecsi" campaign and Cadbury's Chocolatometer spots, both from Argentina; Burger King's "Whopper Face" from Brazil; and a moving promotional effort from Uruguay in response to violence among sports fans. These winners may be a preview of what from the region will do well next month at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival.

The Wave Festival jury awarded both the Promo category Grand Prix and one of the two coveted "Blue Wave" awards to a little-known independent agency in Uruguay, Notable Publicidad, and the Uruguayan Federation of Basketball. After two teenagers were killed in post-game violence during the Metropolitan Basketball championship, play was suspended for a month. When the tournament resumed, a message needed to be sent. So for the next three games, each player switched shirts and wore the rival team's jersey for the whole game to make the point, "No jersey is worth a life."

The other Blue Wave award went to a fun campaign by BBDO Argentina in which PepsiCo changed its brand's name to "Pecsi" to reflect how Pepsi is pronounced in Argentine Spanish and tell consumers that Pepsi costs a bit less than unnamed rival Coke.

One of the creators of the "Pecsi" campaign, BBDO Argentina's director of integrated communications, Nicolas Pimentel, is leaving this week to open what he describes as an "innovation house" in Buenos Aires, to be called + Castro. Mr. Pimentel also worked on earlier award-winning integrated campaigns such as "Bring Back Slow Dancing" for Doritos and Nike's "Barrio Bonito."

"I realized there was an opportunity to really focus on big ideas in innovation, including both creativity and implementation, " he said. "One of the biggest challenges is to bring a big idea to life."

The three-year-old Wave Festival is held at the historic beachfront Copacabana Palace Hotel, and drew 1,565 entries this year. The Wave is organized by Meio & Mensagem, Ad Age's editorial partner in Brazil.

In a stunt reminiscent of Crispin Porter & Bogusky's U.S. work for Burger King, Ogilvy Brazil won the Grand Prix for Outdoor with "Whopper Face." To prove sandwiches are made fresh your way, customers' photos were secretly taken by a hidden camera as they placed their orders, which are then delivered with a picture of the customer's face on the wrapper.

Gaston Bigio, regional creative director for Ogilvy Latina, said his agency considered Crispin Porter's well-known work on Burger King as a benchmark for creative ideas. "With 'Whopper Face,' 'Have it your way' came to life for people to understand this burger is just for you," he said.

Film Grand Prix recipient Cadbury won by cleverly proving its tagline, "A man will never be as good as a whole Cadbury bar," with three spots by Del Campo Nazca Saatchi & Saatchi, Buenos Aires, that each show a man scoring points with his girlfriend, measured by squares of chocolate added to a Chocolatometer, then losing them all with a fatal mistake. In one spot, the man's chocolate rating goes up and up to almost a whole bar as he wines and dines a woman at a restaurant, until he loses all his squares by suggesting they split the check. In another spot, a boyfriend almost redeems himself with his girlfriend by promising to change and be more attentive until he gives her a really stupid gift: a video-game controller. "It's wireless!" he brags.

The Print Grand Prix went to Almap BBDO, Sao Paulo, winner of the Wave's Agency of the Year title for the third year in a row, for a very, very long copy ad for Volkswagen's Passat that covered a double-page spread. The joke in the well-written ad is that there are so many irresistible product features to talk about that the ad is actually the short version. Almap BBDO's consistently great work for Volkswagen and strong relationship with the client has made Brazil one of the few countries in the world where Volkswagen isn't handled by DDB Worldwide.

Another car marketer, Fiat, won the Radio Grand Prix for a spot by Leo Burnett Brasil Publicidade.

AKON'S PEPSI WORLD CUP SOCCER COMMERCIAL

THE KANYE WEST FOUNDATION :: "THE COLLEGE DROP IN"

BBDO x TROPICANA BRINGS LIGHT TO ONE OF CANADA'S DARKEST PLACES

Americans in the lower 48 states who experience seasonal affective disorder might be interested in the latest doings from Tropicana in Canada. In January, the Pepsi brand and its agency, BBDO Toronto, visited the northern town of Inuvik in the Northwest Territories, which experiences weeks of darkness during the depths of winter, and brought the sun—or actually, an artificial, electric-lit facsimile of the sun—to incredulous, grateful residents. Footage from the event is being used in a campaign breaking this week in Canada that's built around the theme, "Brighter mornings for brighter days." Though the stunt is a bit reminiscent of Juan Cabral and Fallon's Cristo-esque work in Europe, it seems a better positioning than what Tropicana has going in the U.S., which might be summed up as "Weirder packaging for confused consumers."

NEW COKE: ONE OF MARKETING'S BIGGEST MISTAKES TURNS 25

WHAT'S A SPORT? GATORADE REDEFINES TO BROADEN TARGET

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- The pressure is on Gatorade to perform this year, following a tough 2009 that had analysts, beverage industry watchers and the ad industry believing the granddaddy of sports drinks had lost its mojo.

NEW LINES: G-series drinks cater to pre-, during- and post-activity. The turnaround hinges on a new campaign, an overhauled product lineup including before and after workout drinks, and a broadened definition of sports to include things such as surfing and acrobatics to lift Gatorade, which saw a 15.5% decline in volume last year. Executives have committed to delivering 4% to 6% revenue growth, following a job-led economic recovery, an ambitious target being watched closely by analysts who want to see signs of a turnaround by year's end. It is also being viewed by some industry insiders as an important moment in the career of Massimo d'Amore, CEO of PepsiCo's Americas Beverages Group.

While Mr. d'Amore manages an entire portfolio of brands -- he's been involved in many of the changes in the beverage division over the past 18 months -- he's said that Gatorade has gotten a lot of his "focus and attention." The bets Gatorade is making are high-profile, given it is the leader in the sports drink category and PepsiCo's fourth-largest brand worldwide. And its clear Mr. d'Amore has been intimately involved in the development and execution of the multi-year effort.

"The success of G is closely tied to the future of Massimo's career at PepsiCo," said one executive familiar with the company.

PepsiCo chose not to comment on outsiders' views of the company. But at a recent investor meeting, CEO Indra Nooyi expressed confidence in the direction of Gatorade and Mr. d'Amore.

Waiting for results

This year, 12 products -- some new, some repackaged -- are hitting store shelves; new distribution deals with GNC and Whole Foods have been struck; the target consumer has been tweaked to include action sports, surfers and dancers; and teens are receiving plenty of attention.

Analysts and industry watchers who have been privy to PepsiCo's pitch say it makes sense. But they're still looking for results, and fast.

The first proof point will be a campaign set to launch later this month. While last year's campaign was focused on image, this year's push will need to focus on educating consumers about the changes to the product lineup.

Two new lines, G Series and G Series Pro, offer athletes solutions for pre-, during- and post-activity. Gatorade believes the pre- and post-workout market is sizable and will provide incremental buying occasions, even as some are questioning why consumers would toss three different products in their gym bags.

"The average consumer is already consuming during the before-and-after occasion," said Sarah Robb-O'Hagan, chief marketing officer at Gatorade. "Different consumers have different nutritional needs on game day vs. training days. What we've seen as we've developed these products is different consumers mixing and matching their own regime to meet their needs."

Attracting teens

The G Series' core target is the 13- to 17-year-old high-school athlete, while G Series Pro's target is the 16- to 24-year-old who is in the business of being athletic, whether as an elite athlete or personal trainer.

Capturing the teen consumer has been identified as a priority for the brand, with Ms. Robb-O'Hagan, conceding that teens thought the brand was dated. Last year's shift to G was meant to grab their attention. With that accomplished, she said, the brand has been working with teens to test and promote the new products. Through May, a mobile locker room is making its way to high schools, showcasing the G Series products.

"What we're focusing on this year, from a marketing standpoint, is making sure that the high-school athlete understands the G Series, understands the three-part series," she said. "If we land that strongly with the teen consumers, we have a lot of opportunity."

Gatorade is also expanding its idea of who is an athlete, looking to surfers, gymnasts and skateboarders. In the past, the brand has focused on traditional sports and leaned more male than female.

 

What goes hand-in-hand with that is the elimination of lifestyle users, those who boosted the brand in the earlier part of the decade. "Gatorade did such a great job with its marketing that it attracted consumers who were drinking it because it was cool, not for exercise rehydration," said John Sicher, editor and publisher of Beverage Digest. "Gatorade lost a lot of that volume last year. It should be able to grow from a new base as it engages and re-engages consumers who want an exercise-hydration beverage."

Growth potential

And, despite competition from brands outside the category such as Vitaminwater, Gatorade and the sports-drink category in general both have growth potential, Mr. Sicher said. According to Beverage Digest, the sports drink category was worth $7.5 billion in 2008. Sports-drink volume had been tracking up 17% between 2004 and 2009, according to Beverage Marketing Corp., but fell 12.3% between 2008 and 2009.

But can Gatorade return to its glory days, the days of iconic marketing campaigns such as "Be like Mike"?

"Gatorade's glory days were about athletics, but it was also a lifestyle beverage. What they're saying is it shouldn't go back to that," said Mr. Faucher. "All the line extensions, that's not the way it's supposed to be going forward. That means you're simply not going to get it to grow the way it did."

Execs argue that there is still plenty of room for growth, however. The brand's research shows that it has 27% penetration among the 68 million performance athletes it has traditionally focused on, and just 12% penetration among the 55 million fitness athletes it is now setting its sites on.

"We're segmenting to grow," Ms. Robb-O'Hagan said. "Instead of focusing on only one hydration product, we're really starting to segment it down and meet different needs for different athletes."

Pepsi Starts 'I Count' Hispanic Initiative

Eva Longoria Parker Will Direct Documentary for Census-Boosting ...

PepsiCo is taking advantage of the 2010 Census with an initiative called "Yo Sumo" (Spanish for "I count") that encourages Hispanics to go beyond just being counted numerically and to share their experiences that have helped shape the American landscape. Working with Pepsi, actress Eva Longoria Parker will make a documentary based on the stories posted to the pepsiyosumo.com website set up by Pepsi.

 

Like the last Census a decade ago, the 2010 poll is expected to give a big boost to Hispanic advertising, as marketers are expected to be impressed by the sheer number of Hispanic consumers and how fast that market is growing.

"We felt the Hispanic consumer needs to go beyond simply being counted, and count," said Martha Bermudez, Pepsi's senior marketing manager, multicultural marketing. "Pepsi partnered with Eva Longoria Parker, who will direct and produce [the documentary]. We want to bring the stories to life in a creative and compelling film."

Ms. Longoria Parker has worked with Pepsi before, appearing in a Hispanic spot for brand Pepsi a few years ago, Ms. Bermudez said.

The "Yo Sumo" effort is being announced today, but a soft launch using social media is already drawing about 100 fans a day to its Facebook page, said Melisa Quiñoy, CEO of Dieste, Pepsi's Hispanic agency. Many of the fans have started posting their stories on the pepsiyosumo.com site, in a mix of Spanish, English and Spanglish, about growing up Hispanic in America, or arriving as young immigrants.

 

Pepsi and Dieste are working with Telemundo, the No. 2 Spanish-language TV network owned by NBC Universal, and Telemundo's youth-oriented cable channel Mun2 and Telemundo.com site. Dieste has done a commercial for "Yo Sumo" featuring quick cuts of young Hispanics talking about being counted, with both English and Spanish-language voiceovers.

Ms. Bermudez said Telemundo will also be broadcasting integrations to drive awareness of Pepsi "Yo Sumo" and the stories that are being collected. For instance, Patricia de Leon, an actress in Telemundo telenovela "Perro Amor," will do a two-minute segment on Telemundo's daily entertainment show "Aceso Total" telling her story and talking about why she supports the "Yo Sumo" effort.

Another partner is Edoardo Chavarin, who started trendy Mexican T-shirt business NaCo and designed the Pepsi "Yo Sumo" T-shirt that is turning up in a growing number of Facebook pictures.

THE JACKSON 5: PEPSI GENERATION

"My video's cost about $100,000 per day" - Bob Giraldi

MTV interviews director Bob Giraldi before the world premiere of Michael Jackson's Pepsi - New Generation Concert Commercial. The interviews reflects upon Bob's experience directing music superstars and the events in which occured during Michael's hair catching fire. NOTE: Michael is discussed around the 17min mark and beyond.

I know you all think that Jay-Z, Diddy and 50 Cent were the first to do integrated advertising campaigns with music and consumer goods. Well think again, the one and only Michael Jackson and The Jackson 5 were the first to do so, and Pepsi was there to help lead the charge of the New Generation. Still today Pepsi has a firm grip on pop culture through music and fashion. Those other guys need to catch up...lol

I always wondered how they finished this commercial? We all know the story of Michael Jackson's hair catching fire due to the pyro that happens when he is coming down the steps. Just a thought.

MICHAEL JACKSON/JACKSON 5: PEPSI GENERATION COMMERCIAL

Can you recognized the kid dressed like Michael?

SHOP TALK: INTERPUBLIC GROUP BUYS DIGITAL SHOP CUBOCC IN BRAZIL

Interpublic Group of Cos. is buying Sao Paulo-based digital specialist CUBOCC, one of Brazil's leading digital creative shops. The agency, with 106 employees, is one of three agencies on Unilever's digital roster in Brazil, and also works for PepsiCo's Doritos brand.

CUBOCC will remain a stand-alone agency and will continue to be run by its founder, Roberto Martini, as CEO and chief creative officer.

Mr. Martini was previously a co-founder of another Brazilian digital agency, AG2, which is currently in discussions about a sale to Publicis Groupe, to strengthen that company's Modem digital operation in Brazil, according to trade publication Meio & Mensagem, Ad Age's partner in Brazil. AG2 already shares a client, General Motors, with another Publicis agency in Brazil, Salles Chemistri.

SXSW: IT'S NO SUNDACE, BUT IT'S MAKING STRIDES

Brands Flood Festival, but Confab Has Yet to Hit the Over-Commercialized Saturation Point

If you were worried about South by Southwest becoming the next Sundance, think again. Record attendance and more sponsors and brand activations than ever would suggest the leading indie music and tech summit in Austin, Texas, reached its over-commercialized saturation point this year, with badges to get into the interactive portion alone up 40% to 10,000-plus attendees and 11 lead sponsors. But those at the festival think SXSW has a ways to go before it reaches the Paris Hilton/nightclub/guerrilla-marketing lows of Park City, Utah's annual movie and celeb summit.

Digital Privacy Among Top Issues Discussed at SXSWi Conference

Creativity's Teressa Iezzi Explains Why Foursquare Was a Winner and Why Facebook, Google is not a natural (or as I like to say "Organic") place for non-media consumer brands to congregate, so marketers such as Pepsi, General Motors' Chevrolet and Levi's focused more on improving the show's utility and navigation rather than pushing their products (though a fair share of product sampling and branded tents could be found, too). Far from complaining, fans were rewarding many of the sponsors with positive tweets, check-ins to branded accounts on Foursquare and Gowalla, and joining Facebook fan pages. The only brands that suffered were the ones whose marketing efforts seemed too blatant or forced.

Microsoft's Bing, for example, offered attendees free taxi rides within a certain radius of downtown Austin -- on the condition that riders must first download the Bing mobile app.

Such force-fed marketing flew in the face of what many attendees deemed to be the ultimate place for viral, self-selecting marketing and applications. After all, this was the same place where Foursquare launched just one year ago.

"The bar's pretty high for authenticity," said Tony Weisman, president of Digitas, Chicago, whose client Miller Lite was a lead sponsor and hosted a contest for independent web producers to have their own short films sponsored by the beer. "It's not overrun by brands yet; it's still principally about ideas, not about posing."

Having purpose

"You have to create an emotional connection back to the brand. It's a micro-audience that's going to be savvy and very finicky -- a super-consumer that's hard to win over," said Doug Aken, chief engagement officer of digital-marketing agency Mr Youth, who has worked with Pepsi on previous campaigns but was not involved with any SXSW efforts. "You would need to really do something unique to stand out -- it's not just creating noise for the sake of creating noise."

Yet as blogs continued to decry the death of SXSWi as an idea platform and the abundance of corporate sponsorship at what has become the country's leading technology summit, brands emerged largely unscathed.

GM's Chevrolet, for example, provided Volt-branded power strips for attendees to charge their laptops and phones, and also partnered with location-based social media app Gowalla to provide free rides in Chevy Equinox crossovers to the conference for attendees who checked in at the airport. Considered late to the social-media party two years after Ford found early success with its Fiesta efforts in 2008, Chevy was declared the festival's biggest marketing winner by blogs, Twitter users and local outlets like the Austin Statesman.

The Chevy Volt, which will have a soft launch in late 2010 before a full rollout in early 2011, is also actively trying to reach the under-34 set, an age group whose failure to embrace GM's other vehicles contributed to GM's bankruptcy. So Chevy activated its on-site vehicles with QR codes to drive users to a microsite, as well as a strong Twitter presence to engage viewers on site.

Pepsi also ramped up its second annual sponsorship of SXSW to activate branded experiences around SoBe Life Water, Mtn Dew and Pepsi. PepsiCo sponsored a Podcast Playground for podcasters to host quiet broadcasts and conduct interviews with key thinkers at the show, as well as a webcam appearance by LL Cool J to announce his new music-based social media project, Boomdizzle. SoBe hosted a "re-skinning" photo booth to promote the drink's new label, and Mtn Dew's Green Label Sound record label hosted several music showcases.

"As a lead partner, we want to be asking attendees, 'What's the issue? How can we make the event better?'" said Bonin Bough, Pepsi's director-social and digital media. "We want to add value and make ourselves more integrated into the experience, and in turn we get to learn early how to use these new technologies to transform retail purchase behavior."