Bart Casabona › Comments

Anyone know when these new-look cans are hitting the UK? - Tyson Key

Anyone know when these new-look cans are hitting the UK? - Tyson Key

@Tyson Key Thanks for the note Tyson. Rollout is in North America right now but will ask Bart if he can comment on UK. Thanks - Josh Karpf

Bought a 12 pack earlier this week. Old packaging on the outside, new cans on the inside. Nice surprise. The Diet Pepsi design looks way cool, and better in person than in photos. Bravo! - Mark Edwards

@Tyson -- as a global brand, we are working to eventually roll out a consistent brand identity around the world, but exact details and timing for the UK are TBD. - Bart Casabona

Apologies for the double post back then. Thanks for the update, Bart. - Tyson Key

For the 2nd time in the last 3 months, I came home from the Grocery store and viola, the Pepsi 12-Pack Packaging rips right at the built-in handle. The box falls to the floor and a couple cans come flying out! The first time this happened was in my parking garage in front of my very pretty neighbor and while she was nice enough to help me pick up the cans, she got sprayed in the face pretty good by a can that was punctured when it fell out of the box. That was embarrassing and she has not talked to me since - JCANCU

For the 2nd time in the last 3 months, I came home from the Grocery store and viola, the Pepsi 12-Pack Packaging rips right at the built-in handle. The box falls to the floor and a couple cans come flying out! The first time this happened was in my parking garage in front of my very pretty neighbor and while she was nice enough to help me pick up the cans, she got sprayed in the face pretty good by a can that was punctured when it fell out of the box. That was embarrassing and she has not talked to me since - JCANCU

@Badger -- thanks for the post. I think the blurred lines between communications and marketing is very interesting/topical and would love to know what other folks are thinking and experiencing. That said, what's your question or comment regarding QR codes? I can help start a topic. - Bart Casabona

QR code is really interesting to see, especially on a curved can. Seemed to work via a colleagues iPhone, but the QR reader he was using simply displayed a wap site address and didn't go direct unfortunately.... - Badger Gravling

QR code is really interesting to see, especially on a curved can. Seemed to work via a colleagues iPhone, but the QR reader he was using simply displayed a wap site address and didn't go direct unfortunately.... - Badger Gravling

http://www.parkerweb.com/blog... - Darryl Parker

McDonalds making a whirl at social media: http://twitter.com/nuggnuts - Darryl Parker

If Pepsi Owned Twitter - http://dannybrown.me/2008... - Darryl Parker

As a community marketing person (As well as a cola addict) it's inevitable, and fine as long as there is openess and transparency. - Badger Gravling

Incidentally, how do we square away Pepsi wanting 2 way social conversation on Friendfeed with a big hyperlink in the intro to the Terms and Conditions for Pepsi's own site? Does this mean that this outpost on Friendfeed is Pepsi territory now they've invaded? - Badger Gravling

Excellent move - will be very interested to see how this excercise develops. - Jon Mulholland

Dear Pepsi, could you be more specific about your "comment moderation" policies? I would be tempted to invest my time/attention here but not sure where you place limits of the conversation. I am not talking about trolls or profanity, but rather your readiness to hand out brand definition to users. Far from being naively optimistic here, ... but surprise me if you can. - Mindaugas Dagys

I would have agree with Steh Godin's take (http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_b...) on Pepsis new logo. Namely: "So, when Pepsi and BestBuy start 'testing' logos, and proclaiming that a new logo might change their market share, I get nervous. You can't test a logo any more than you can test a first name. /.../ I guess the punchline is: take the time and... more... - Margus Palu

@Mindaugas Dagys -- our comment moderation will be limited to removing profanity or personal attacks. Also, we will monitor the room for common themes and try to address them as they pop up. . - Bart Casabona

Nice to be able to have a conversation here about the new branding effort. Just got my nice Pepsi Cooler package and am posting photos up on Flickr. Really liked the retrospective look at previous brand images. I'm curious to know what you're hoping to get out of the influencer campaign, versus traditional media. Especially since I'm a devoted Diet Coke drinker! - Charlene Li

Got my Pepsi Cooler package as well. Maybe I will use the iPhone for photos ;-) Steve Rubel - we have a discussion at Conversation Agent about PR agencies participating, as you probably know. Curious as well about the goal behind new logo... - Valeria Maltoni

I'm a huge fan of FriendFeed and it community, so I'm glad it was chosen as Pepsi's first step towards engaging in Social Media. It's also nice to see Pepsi employees participating and exciting to feel like I'm part of the new branding campaign. :) - Mona Nomura

Steve, why do "PR Agencies" need to participate? The value I see is when companies designate customer service reps to actively listen on friendfeed or twitter and step in and say, "I'm sorry you are having a problem with Brand X. We'd like to rectify that by giving you a replacement/refunding your money/improving our product." When PR gets involved it feels very false to me. - Laura Norvig

they are clearly going after Obama's market. McCain supporters should stop drinking Pepsi. - Morgan Warstler

@Valeria I will check out your post, thanks! - Steve Rubel

@Laura PR works best when it's the eyes/ears of a company, not just the mouth. We have more work to do as an industry but we're coming along! - Steve Rubel

Do I get some money for "Liking" this? No? Ahh, so what is in it for me to tell my friends about commercial rooms? - Robert Scoble

@Scoble No money, but I believe that the relative speed and openness of this room is what Naked Conversations was all about, no? Consider this for a moment - you and I are conversing openly in my client's room. That's new, for PR. - Steve Rubel

@Charlene Li - Hopefully we get a great story to tell about how we turned a devote Diet C--- drinker into a Diet Pepsi fan. Seriously, this is not a outreach campaign meant to drive placements or impressions but to engage in what we hope to be a continuing dialogue with influencers on how we should participate in this space. - B. Bonin Bough

Guest blog post about the new look from 22 year old Princeton grad. http://ping.fm/TcJxn - Cheryl Smithem

Guest blog post about the new look from 22 year old Princeton grad. http://ping.fm/TcJxn - Cheryl Smithem

I'm still wondering how applicable terms and conditions from Pepsi's own site are to a conversation/room on Friendfeed? We're not in Kansas any more! - Badger Gravling

@Cheryl Smithem Thanks to you and your son for commenting. We believe a big piece of this space is around transparency which is why we rolled this out the way we did. This is exactly the type of feedback we were hoping for. - Josh Karpf

@Badger Gravling This is our first step into this space and how we approach terms and conditions will evolve. Please continue to point out key issues and better examples that we can use as reference moving forward. - Josh Karpf

@Josh Karpf No problem - not only do I work in social media, but it's for a large company (Bauer Media), so I'm aware of the need to evolve from a sound starting point, legal or otherwise - a Terms and Conditions would be fine, assuming more is needed than any applicable to Friendfeed anyway, but perhaps one written and aimed at Friendfeed users, rather than one that appears as if Pepsi have come and claimed this corner as their own? - Badger Gravling

I think you'd gain some credibility by linking to some of the negative reviews about the new branding that you've had over the last few days. - Ben Rowe

@Ben Rowe Thanks Ben. Totally fair point. There certainly is no shortage of feedback. - Josh Karpf

I think transparency is always a good thing - it's brave, it's honest and it wins loyalty whereas "wizard behind the curtain" PR tactics always feel vaguely manipulative at best (speaking as a PR flak myself). I'm curious to see how this evolves. Thanks for stepping out into this and inviting us along! - Katie Adams

@Steve - but why do *you* need to be here? if they are engaging us directly, what exactly is your role? - Jeremy Toeman

@Jeremy As a strategist on the Pepsi account, I would be here regardless - reading, moderating, advising, etc. So rather than be clandestine about it, Pepsi thought we should be open. Now that I am here, though, what role do you think I should play? - Steve Rubel

@Jeremy I have to say Steve was very cautious at first, for good reason, but we were very clear that all of our agency partners will be identified and participatory. - B. Bonin Bough

@Steve honestly, without a clear understanding of what Pepsi actually wants to get out of this, I can't answer that.. all i can say is having "the PR guy" around and actively participating makes me feel like this is just a "we paid our way into social media" effort. pls note - while i know we've disagreed on things before, this has nothing to do with you personally.. - Jeremy Toeman

@Jeremy we want this kind of feedback (and I recognize it's not personal). I will let Pepsi speak for themselves on their goals. I am really here as an observer and to facilitate. - Steve Rubel

@Jeremy I don't think it's really function specifc; PR/Marketing/Sales. It is shared space. He is our partner on this and while it's a little different from how other companies are approaching..we are thrilled to have him front and center. - Josh Karpf

@Jeremey Our objective is to open a place where we can have dialogue around social media strategies. In addition to participating in other spaces we are dedicated to making this place have meaning to the FriendFeed community. - B. Bonin Bough

@B. Bonin Bough “...how we turned a devote Diet C--- drinker into a Diet Pepsi fan.” As someone who lives this brand, a new logo/package design won’t do that. Never has. I’ve been drinking Pepsi for nearly four decades and for one reason only—taste. Everything from that point forward starts from there. Not that it’s always a requirement, but how many people tapped ahead of time were... more... - mtlb

(FriendFeed character limits doesn’t really facilitate conversation that well.) Anyway, Google “Pepsi’ and ‘social media’ or ‘new logo’ and gauge the responses. (While it’s easy to be mislead by the number of mentions, really listen to what’s being said. The classic PR mantra “Well, at least people are talking about it” only flies if you’re Paris Hilton.) - mtlb

If you haven't seen it, Shannon Paul has a nice writeup/video on this topic: http://veryofficialblog.com/2008... - Craig

Surprised this isn't tied into a Twitter account. The ability to see and push shorter comments to Twitter would bring more people into this room. Friendfeed conversations don't get noticed too easily from outside. - Brian Carter

The new logo reminds me of the dead head skull. - Brent Logan

Showing us a visual history of the evolution of the Pepsi Brand is a perfect way to launch a new logo. Any plans to give the background of developing this new logo? - Eric Herberholz

@ Eric -- great question re the logo, especially since the development process was more involved that may appears at face value. Long story short: the new identity is based on the roots/heritage of the brand and focuses on clarity of message via a singular design. More to follow. - Bart Casabona