Pepsi and iTunes: Now a Promotion for Everyone
The Pepsi iTunes Music Promotion is starting up again. Are you excited? I haven’t been this excited since, I don’t know, every other soft-drink-look-under-the-cap promotion (which incidentally amounts to very little excitement) I think this promotions is very smart for both companies involved. After all, what type of cross-branding promotion would it be if it wasn’t mutually beneficial? But I just won’t go out of my way for a Pepsi just to get one free song.
When I first heard Apple was teaming up with Pepsi again for this promotion, that was my initial thought. At first I thought this promotion was not geared for you and I. Sure, we the early adopting Mac enthusiasts, enjoy a cold Pepsi from time to time just like the next guy, but will the chance to win a free song (1 in every 3 are winners) on the iTunes Music Store entice us to buy a Pepsi? All signs are pointing to no. But Apple has other ideas. This year they have upped the ante. Now with every cap, win or lose, there’s a code that when entered, puts you in a drawing for a Free iPod Mini. Apple is giving away an iPod Mini every hour.
Now why would Apple need to do that? Maybe it’s because last year someone figured out you could locate winning caps before opening the bottle. I’m sure store owners had tons of non-winning Pepsi bottles left on their shelves. Or maybe it’s because Pepsi is no doubt subsidizing the costs. The Pepsi logo imprinted on the free iPod Mini leads me to that conclusion. Both of those answers maybe correct. But by simply adding the hourly iPod Mini drawing, Apple managed to make all those people like you and I who were indifferent to the promotion last year, suddenly interested this year.
Isn’t it amazing how the simple addition of an hourly drawing for a $249 music player can suddenly make a promotion that was only viable to some people last year jump to more than just “some people” this year? Giving away free stuff is always good. But giving away more free stuff is even better.
But this isn’t just some raffle. You do get a Pepsi to enjoy as well. And Pepsi has a potential gold mine on their hands. Apple knows Pepsi sells enough bottles of their cola that there’s bound to be a bunch of people who say, “Gee, I have always wanted to try the iTunes Music Store and with this free song, that time might as well be now.” And then the ITMS/iPod Sale Conversion machine starts rolling. And Pepsi is thinking people will say, “Gee, I like Coke a little better than Pepsi but if I buy a Pepsi I might win a free song or at the very least a chance for an iPod Mini so i’ll take the Pepsi.” But single Pepsi bottle sales aside, Pepsi has the opportunity to position themselves as a partner with Apple and the iPod early on. The promotion will debut with another Super Bowl commercial and after this season’s promotion, Pepsi and iTunes might become an institution. Together. Can you imagine Burger King doing a Monopoly Game? Exactely. You think McDonald’s when you think Monopoly. After this year, you won’t ever associate Coke with iTunes. Let’s just hope the promotional bottles do not run into production issues like last year (the bottles did not hit shelves until 4 weeks after the Super Bowl spot).
As far as I can tell the Apple/Pepsi brain trust has covered all bases. As an iPod owner/ITMS buyer/Pepsi drinker/iPod Mini wanter, I know my base has been covered. How about your’s?
del.icio.us
Digg
Facebook
Slashdot
StumbleUpon
Comments
“Everyone”? Since I - and trillions of others - don’t live in the US of A, this promotion does not cover my base…
this is awesome. i already have a nice ipod, but i have a broke friend who desperately wants one. perhaps this is his chance.
—-
also re: johan morris.
“Since I - and trillions of others - don’t live in the US of A”
hey man, not to be a jerk, but there are only 6 billion people on the planet, of which 281,421,906 reside in america. that leaves around 5.7 billion in other countries. somehow, this falls short of ‘trillions.’
not trying to be a jerkoff, trying to be realistic.
your point still stands tho, its b.s. for anyone outside the states.
OK, “trillions” was a figure of speech & to make it clear that “everyone” is also largely exagerated. As you said: 80% of the world population does not live in the USA…
yeah, too bad most americans dont realize that 80% of the worlds people dont live here.
you ask most americans what the largest country is and they’ll say america without hesitation.
stupid fucks dont even realize places like china exist.
god i live in a country full of maroons.
on a much lighter note…
when is apple going to take a break from pepsi and spend time on something we really care about…
like improving itunes or ipod sound quality? its pretty awful.
Mia,
if you copy an old, crackling LP digitally into a CD, you got bad sound quality, no matter how “professional” the CD-player you play it on.
The same goes for audio-players like iTunes and iPod: make sure you copy your soundfiles with a decent compression rate. And don’t trust “free” sources like Kazaa @ the like: that hard-to-find MP3 file can be recorded with a bad microphone in front of an old transistorradio…
If you copy “legal” CD’s yourself into iTunes at a bitrate of 196 kHz, the sound quality should be excellent, both in iTunes and on the iPod.
yea, i understand how it all works.
i personally never owned an old crackling LP, nor would i download from someone who did. gross.
there’s a serious movement towards digital downloads. it’s very exciting to see. everyday people ripping legal and illegal CDs of all kinds.
i still feel the sound in iTunes and ipod is flat. i was expecting more surround sound. something more 3D i guess. but don’t take it personally. am sure they are workin’ on something cool for us back @ Appleland as i type….