Pepsi moves away from Super Bowl to create its own movement, online

MILWAUKEE – Pepsi’s Super Bowl streak is over after a 23-year run.

Ads for the drinks won’t appear in next year’s Super Bowl on CBS. Instead, the company plans to shift ad dollars to a new marketing effort that’s mostly online.

“In 2010, each of our beverage brands has a strategy and marketing platform that will be less about a singular event and more about a movement,” says Pepsi marketing spokeswoman, Nicole Bradley.

That quote reminded me of a chart that John Battelle showed in a a SXSW presentation a few years ago. I’ve been using this illustration to illustrate the how attention or sales driven by media spending can look different from attention or sales driven from word-of-mouth.

If I have anything to say about it, 2010 will be the year that sports properties begin leveraging the social graph for ticket sales and to help sponsors (like Pepsi) engage with fans.

It’s not easy to do…but it’s worth it

As Seth Godin says:

The reason social media is so difficult for most organizations

Events are easier to manage, pay for and get excited about. Processes build results for the long haul.