Pepsi Cans Invite Consumers to Dally Online

Tribal DDB Dallas has created a series of microsites to accompany client Pepsi’s 2007 branding initiative, which will present a revolving door of can and bottle designs.

Pepsi’s plan is to roll out a new can in stores every three weeks. Each can’s art centers on a different platform or theme appealing to young adults, such as fashion, car culture, music, sports and entertainment. On each can is a URL for a microsite or partner site related to the can’s theme.

The first such site, at thisisthebeginning.com, appeared through January and introduced the campaign concept. It allowed users to collaboratively create a billboard using selected stencils. The best of these will be made into an actual billboard in New York’s Times Square, which will go up on the first of April, the agency side.

“The idea behind this experience was to tap into the communal aspect of what’s going on online today,” said Tribal DDB Associate Creative Director Matt Smith. “We wanted to allow the world to show Pepsi, here’s a great creation, something done by people all around the globe.”

In total, Tribal DDB Dallas will create about 10 to 12 microsites. The rest of the cans will direct users to partner sites like Yahoo for music themes, Dub magazine for car culture, and NFL.com and other sports sites. Yahoo and Pepsi already have a music partnership, Pepsi Smash, which turned out a promotion for video ringtones last year.

The new branding also includes a redesign of pepsiworld.com and pepsiusa.com, and the creation of pepsigallery.com, where users can view the series of cans and get information about each one.

Pepsi’s sponsorship of the Super Bowl half time show and its big game spots resulted in a traffic increase of 183 percent to pepsiusa.com on the day of the game versus the previous Sunday, according to Hitwise, and a 471 percent lift on Monday compared to the previous Monday. Pepsi.com’s site traffic, which mirrors pepsiusa.com, increased by 673 percent on game day compared to the week before, and 471 percent Monday to Monday.

The site following thisisthebeginning.com is pepsifreeride.com, which tackles car culture. The URL points to a Yahoo page where visitors can enter a sweepstakes to win a 2007 Subaru Impreza WRX customized by Dub magazine. Visitors can also play the advergame “Derby Daze.”

Upcoming sites include a virtual DJ site where visitors can manipulate music using their keyboard. Another site will allow users to design a can, the best instance of which will be released in stores.