The PepsiCo Plugged-in Stage hosted its inaugural panel at SXSWi with an inside look at PepsiCo’s innovative incubator program, PepsiCo 10, and three out of the 10 entrepreneurs whose digital platforms are paving the way for digital R&D within the company. Moderated by Mashable’s Editor in Chief, Adam Ostrow, the panelists included our own Senior Manager of Social Media, Josh Karpf along with Tracy Brown of Evil Genius Designs, James DeJulio of Tongal and Benn Burton of FanFeedr.
PepsiCo 10 is a program that matches technology, media and communications entrepreneurs with PepsiCo brands to activate pilot programs in digital media and social marketing. With over 500 submissions, PepsiCo focused on the strength of each start-up’s business model as applied to the brands and eventually chose 25 standout programs from the following four innovation categories: social media, mobile marketing, place-based and retail experiential marketing, or digital video or gaming. In the end, 10 companies were chosen and have since partnered with PepsiCo brands like Gatorade, Quaker and Frito-Lay to launch successful programs in the emerging digital realm.
In an interesting dialogue between PepsiCo and the three startup companies, the panelists shared insight about their PepsiCo 10 experience thus far, including individual approaches to standing out during application, strategies for startups working with large corporations and opportunities to improve the symbiotic relationship to drive more success to both the company and start-ups.
According to Karpf, there is a growing demand for digital R&D within PepsiCo, and the only way to find new technology that is emerging but may not have the scale is to put a process behind it. And that’s just what PepsiCo did. When asked about the incentive to launch this program, Josh spoke about the importance of discovering new technology that could potentially be the next Twitter or Foursquare, but more importantly will affect consumers and drive business. Additionally, he stressed the importance of creating a digital competency within the company by directly exposing employees and consumers to emerging technologies paired with brands.
From the start-ups’ perspective, there is something to be said about collaborating with one of the world’s largest food and beverages companies to leverage your program. However, there have been some challenges along the way. According to DeJulio, working with a large company does not provide the immediate gratification that a small agency does. He, along with Brown and Burton, suggested that one person in the marketing, innovation or tech department of the parent company get directly involved with the brand and start-up activation. Additionally, Karpf suggested compressing the timeline for the application and selection process to increase efficiency on both ends. He also hopes to increase the value of the PepsiCo 10 companies by providing a monetary reward and increasing promotion.
In all, the first PepsiCo 10 program has proved a success. By the end of SXSW, hundreds of attendees will have played Evil Genius Designs “Super Shopper” game at the PepsiCo Playground, helping to spread the word about the significance of emerging technology joining forces with large companies to drive business growth and consumer awareness. PepsiCo is still in the early stages of an emerging digital space that will definitely shift the norm in marketing and communications over the next several years. And hopefully, PepsiCo will incorporate the feedback from the start-ups at this panel to launch an even more successful PepsiCo 10 program scheduled to take place in Europe later this year.
