Krishna De

My post on this effort will go up tomorrow. I wanted to make sure it fit in the flow of the week (what Conversation Agent is all about, etc.) You will see my suggestion ;-) - Valeria Maltoni

@Valeria, I can't wait. I I know it will be thoughtful! - Steve Rubel

@Steve, I put some thought into it as if I were a team member of PepsiCo. - Valeria Maltoni

@Valeria, everyone here is part of the extended team - at least, virtually. - Steve Rubel

Can you share more on the 'smile' inspiration/process behind the logo? Is smile a main theme of Pepsi's 2009 ad creative, or is it intended to be more subtle? I'm wondering how 'smile' might be positioned for social media audiences. One idea is to make a societal correlation to the white stripe (smile) -- perhaps aligning with your green/eco efforts -- to fuel online consumer interest and action. It's interesting that the original red, white, and blue Pepsi logo was designed to commemorate WWII efforts. What will this new version of the logo support (beyond making Pepsi drinkers smile)?? Also, are there any plans to synch up the new logo launch to the current "Design our Pepsi Can" promo? I agree with Seth Godin's comments. At the end of the day a brand logo is just that -- a logo. If you want to promote the logo and make it a part of the cultural conversation: 1) think about meaningful connections and impacts, 2) determine how people can people get involved online/offline 3) make it about them - not y - Andrew Foote

Firstly it's great to see a company like Pepsi engage in this way. I do hope that you will be prepared to share your learnings on this journey into engaging with consumers through new media as there are many companies who are not sure where to jump in, how to engage and have concerns about as you quote "At the same time we need to make sure the conversation is clean, free of profanity, and does not have any personal attacks but we are working as fast as we can to get comments up in a timely manner (even negative ones).” - Krishna De

I've only seen one example of someone being really negative in FriendFeed and in that case the owners of the room made it open by invitation only. Also of course your fans will no doubt come to the rescue and the advocates for your brand in your community will make it an uncomfortable place for the nay-sayers to be. However I you prefer to moderate comments first then that's fine as most of us do that on our blogs! - Krishna De

One thought for FF in terms of useability is that as you are moderating comments, when I mistakenly hit return which added my initial comment, then it got posted for moderation so I was not able to go back an update it with additional commentary/thoughts. - Krishna De

Steve - while you reached out to people in the US with the new packaging, don't forget that your message on the web is global - I'm in Ireland and came across the FF room through Valeria's blog - so you can reach a global audience as you know. This does have interesting implications though for brands and packaging where there is no agreement on packaging design and in terms of communicating roll-outs across the world for global brands. - Krishna De

Steve - can you change the images/consider changing the images on Flickr to be shareable with attribution - clearly Pepsi owns the trade mark and design but if you want bloggers to share the story then make it easy for them to use images sharing the new look cans. - Krishna De

Less is better, and I agree new packaging, but... Colors are too "modern". I dislike 'em. - Tiziano Tassi

I definitely love the packaging and the whole way it was sent to bloggers and all... I would love to keep an eye on how the new Pepsi logo would be unveiled here in Venezuela. - Rafael Rojas Cremonesi

Do you think new colors and minimalist design would be better on the shelf between competitors's cans (I'm thinking about CocaCola and Private Labels)? More visibility for consumer's eyes without read? - Tiziano Tassi

I guess this campaign is starting to have a multiplying effect. Check out this post from Venezuelan news blog Noticias24.com. http://economia.noticias24.com... - Rafael Rojas Cremonesi

@Krishna You're right - we should take a global view. After all, this is the Internet! However, our focus is US for now. I will look into the images on Flickr. Good suggestion. - Steve Rubel

@Josh Karpf spreading the word about the rebranding and what you guys are up to here. http://is.gd/58fA - GH avisualagency

@ghava Thrilled you are into it. - Josh Karpf

And if you do have a newsletter, why not share here a few lines about what your newsletter is and where people can subscribe - either leave a message here or send us a short audio which we'll add to next weeks show. - Krishna De

Haven't been able to listen to the show yet (My itunes is poorly and it keeps shutting down on me!!) but I am a big fan of ezines, so much so that I set up a blog HowtodoEmailNewsletters.com where I share my personal experience of using email newsletters. I love Constant Contact but it falls down as it doesnt do autoresponders. iContact is another one that I recommend - havent used it personally but know lots of people who have set up an account and love using it. Both iContact & Aweber have funky blog syndication options now so you can set up an email newsletter to go out once a week with links to all your blog postings - all automatic, dont have to even think about it, just focus on writing your blog. Nifty :) - Karen Skidmore

I've been using VerticalResponse.com for 3 years. It's a pay-as-you-go service where you buy credits as needed & no monthly subscription. I'd recommend it for small lists or if you just want to give ezines a try. The downside is that, now I've decided to move to Aweber, I may well lose quite a few subscribers because of the 'verification' process. I should have moved sooner! My ezine is 'Competitive Advantage' - issued every two weeks for small businesses. Subscribe at http://www.frontline-results.c... - Louise Barnes-Johnston