Coke vs. Pepsi: Which Integrates Social Media and Marketing the Best?

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by Ann Pruitt

Here’s a quick summary of how Coca Cola and Pepsi are using social media to promote their products and grow their fans’ loyalty. Both companies say they are handing over control of their brands to their public. Are they? Let’s take a look, and declare our own winner in the social media cola wars.

Pepsi

Coke
Twitter
23,348 Twitter followers at http://twitter.com/pepsi 18,175 Twitter followers at http://twitter.com/CocaCola
1113 updates 3005 updates
rank per twitter.grader.com out of 6,417,837
4,233 2573
Winner: Coke. There are fewer followers, but more interaction. And it’s more follower input, where Pepsi’s site features lots more input from Pepsi themselves.
Facebook
613,005 fans on Facebook 5,180,603 fans on Facebook, one of the top on Facebook
When they launched “digital Coke” on its Facebook page before the Super Bowl, the company gained 800,000 new “friends” in about 10 days.
Winner: Coke again. Sheer numbers, and once again, more input from fans vs. Pepsi’s own self-promotion.
Charitable promotions supported by social media
Pepsi Refresh Project will distribute $20 million to charities as grants, voted by fans; have more than a million unique visitors since the January launch, and more than 3 million votes. Celebrities are also submitting charitable requests. 126,000 takers in a Super Bowl promotion gave $1 to the Boys & Girls Clubs of America. Total of $500,000 donated. Other smaller charities don’t seem to be promoted via social media as prominently.
Note, Pepsi dropped its traditional Super Bowl ad in favor of this social media campaign.
Winner: Pepsi. Coke is working with charities, sure, but Pepsi has taken a daring turn by relying on social media to promote it. And it’s working, apparently.
Live promotions supported through social media
Uh. Well, I couldn’t find any at the moment. 3 ambassadors are in the middle of a world tour to 206 countries where Coke is sold. They blog every day and meet online followers worldwide. http://www.expedition206.com/
Winner:  Coke. Hands down. Great integration of real people and social media.

The integration of social media and marketing is in its infancy yet, or perhaps its toddler years, and it’s interesting to see that these large corporations are testing the waters. Coke has a better grasp of how to involve users on the daily interactions.

Meanwhile, Pepsi has taken a big, and seemingly successful, risk in getting users to buy in on its charitable directions. I’d be interested to know if Pepsi’s users are only involved in voting when their own group or interest is up for a grant, or whether there are users who participate with no personal interest in the winning grants. Does it matter?  Pepsi is driving people to its site, and helping build brand loyalty. That’s what it’s all about, anyway.

But in this contest, we have to award Coca Cola with first place in the integration of social media and marketing.

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Time Thursday, March 18th, 2010, 7:10 am   |   CategoryCoca-Cola, Coke vs. Pepsi, Pepsi, Social Media  |  RssRSS feed |  CommentRespond  |  TrackbackTrackback

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  • http://www.marketingfunwithmike.com Mike Rudd

    Great article and comparison…it’s interesting that Pepsi has more followers on Twitter yet Coke has much more interaction and much greater market share.
    I wonder when their launch dates were of their twitter accounts maybe that is something?

  • http://www.skypulsemedia.com Howie

    I don’t understand the purpose of this study. Unless you can correlate activities to sales this is all meaningless. In fact considering each brand has about 2 billion plus in customers the numbers are pretty pitiful. And as I mentioned in my Tweet Point of Sale Specials trump everything. When given a choice (which eliminates everywhere but supermarkets and drug stores) that involves special pricing people have no loyalty with cola. This trumps all Ad Spending. I have a preference but I always buy what is on sale. Always. Convenience stores or restaurants you either have choice or not but there isn’t specials. Fact Cola Brands should spend more on In Store Specials and less on Advertising and Social Media.

  • http://www.60SecondMarketer.com Jamie Turner

    Awwwright, Howie! We love it when people stir things up. Thanks for your vigorous response.

    We’re actually in 100% agreement with you — there’s no point in doing social media unless you can track the results and generate a positive ROI.

    (Shameless plug: My book being published by the Financial Times Press in September is all about Social Media Measurement.)

    In the meantime, please feel free to download this white paper on our site called “Top 11 Ways to Measure Social Media.” It should answer a lot of your questions:

    http://www.60SecondMarketer.com/Social

    Thanks,
    Jamie Turner

  • http://northstarfinecoffees.com Bryan-David Scott

    Very nice job, Jamie. I learn from you all the time. You always impress me.

  • Ann Pruitt

    Howie,

    I live in Atlanta (Coca Cola City), and went to a college that has a huge endowment from Coke, and my loyalties lie with Coke. Period. Always. And, being a more “experienced” consumer than some of the younger crowd that may spend more time knee deep in social media, I doubt that any social media campaign is going to influence my buying decision.

    That’s what I’m finding interesting…will these social media campaigns begin to influence younger consumers, and gain their loyalty for a lifetime – like TV commercials “used” to do? Obviously that’s what Pepsi thinks, considering it dropped Super Bowl ads in favor of their “hip” online campaign.

    Yes, we need to see how sales increase as a result of social media. This post just looked at how each was marketing using social media, not whether the marketing was working.

    Thanks for your post.

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