We recently had the opportunity to interview Bonin Bough, PepsiCo's Global Director of Digital & Social Media, and Ellen McGirt, senior writer at Fast Company Magazine from SXSW. These guys are Social Pros, so we wanted to share this entire interview with everyone. Enjoy!
I'd like to talk to you about three trends that are shaping social behavior. And I think it's really relevant when we think about all of the types of businesses and innovations represented at South by Southwest. And the three things are coupons, badges, and causes. These seem to be some pretty popular motivators for people online.
Bough: Yeah, well, you know, well, first I think that that's the amazing thing about South by Southwest is that it truly is this place where you have the opportunity to see the trends that are going to set the pace for what consumers are going to be engaging with 6 to 18 months out. It's kind of the Davos of digital. And one of the things we're trying to do this year is how do we bring that conversation outside of Austin. Bring those insights beyond just the boundaries, the city limits. So we've actually partnered with South by Southwest to build out live streaming of all the keynotes, the panels, some of the discussions, and that's available on Pepsi.com as well as on FastCompany.com.
But, specific to the trends that you mentioned, I think causes is really interesting. And when you look at what we have done around the refresh program, I think, which is more than just about causes. It's actually about passion. Passions that can help move the world forward and the individual - the power of individual of ideas to transform their world, their local communities. Whether it's building a bike lane or planting a garden. And so I think that the power of social provides us a platform to create unique engagement deliver on the - I think what we all have - which is how do we continue to move on?
McGirt: And you know, Troy, adding on to those wonderful trends, what we could not have predicted at South by was Japan. And since Fast Company looks for innovation action, and as a reporter it's my dream to actually watch somebody do something innovative and creative and magnificent in front of me. That's what's happened here this year. There was a page set up immediately where entrepreneurs and thinkers and marketers and tinkerers could get together and figure out how could they make that badge, how could they raise money, how could they turn their event into something, and telegraph that immediately through this community that wants to be known for taking action.
Zynga, which is on the cover of Fast Company Magazine, within twelve hours created an entire digital goods world specifically designed to raise for Save The Children who they partnered with before. And we got to watch that all happen here in real time. And realize that that philanthropic effort, that thing that we all want to do to improve the world, leave our legacy of having impacted and making the world a better place - whether it's a bike lane or it's helping somebody that we'll never meet in Japan, is fully on display here at South by.
So your trends couldn't be more on point and it's been really moving to see it play out here.
Now, Bonin, with the Pepsi Refresh Campaign - I mean, it's no surprise that, in my mind, Pepsi has always been a generous company. They've always had large charitable donations. And I'm wondering - has Pepsi Refresh changed the amount that Pepsi contributes or really just the how?
Bough: So what's different about it is that it's not a campaign. Sorry, it's not a program form the foundation for charitable giving. So it's actually the brand engaging with consumers to help bring about their passions. But what I also think is interesting is that it's this continued focus on how do we learn from our consumers, how do we learn from emerging technologies like the ones that are here, on ways that we can change and transform business. So another platform that we launched for emerging technologies that is PepsiCo10. PepsiCo10 was an open call for innovation. An open call to have the companies that we know are transforming the world come and partner and collaborate with us. And 20 of them came and they presented to people from across the business - 280 people from across business.
And at South by, we're actually showcasing some of those innovations. And so one of the companies that we partnered with was Evil Genius and we created a super shopper game with them and they're - what they focus on is how do you create opportunities for people in physical spaces to engage with their space in different ways or a breakout band which talks about how do you crowdsource music.
So what we did is we launched with our PepsiMax brand a way that you could crowdsource music and create the background soundtrack for your South by Southwest experience. And one thing that we did with another emerging company, not part of PepsiCo10, was instagram is, in their photosharing, is that we asked people to crowdsource the packaging. So I think what you're talking about is the power of crowds to do things. And sometimes we're using that to connect to our brands or helping to connect to their passions through the brand.
Now, when we started talking, you guys mentioned just South by Southwest being such a big event - just seems to get bigger and bigger every year, which is of course, both fabulous but then challenges traditional ways for us to interact and be efficient. And I think that extending the event online is one way of doing that. Do you think that the extension of South by Southwest, in addition to streaming forums that - are there online supplements and additions that are really becoming essential even for people on-site to get the full experience?
Bough: You know, I mean, so three years ago - this is our third year here - three years ago one of the big activations that we had here was the PepsiCo Zeitgeist and the whole point of that was, I've - this is my 7th - sorry my 8th time coming here - but the whole purpose was that, through my experience, one of the biggest problems - or one of the - it's a good problem to have, right? But the issues were, how do you continue to see the conversation that's happening across this huge - this humongous event that's only growing and so, the Zeitgeist was created so that we could create visualizations of the conversation that was happening, to help people identify where are the largest amounts of blog posts at that time being written about. Then where are the largest amount of tweets coming from. Where are the most amount of people that - events that people are checking in. So that they have new ways to experience South by, to - not necessarily just deal, but augment that festival-going experience.
So I - first of all, I hope it grows bigger. And the funny this is that music is even bigger than interactive. And it's exciting.
McGirt: And then one of the interesting things about some of the technology micro-trends here is the intimacy. In the world where there's an avalanche of information on Twitter and Facebook, for all its personal network style, it is really a public platform here. So one of the best use cases to test new technology is a festival like South by Southwest - it's like, how am I going to find my friends? How am I going to have that meeting? Where might I accidentally run into a VC or an entrepreneur with a great idea.
So we've seen Pack, which is created by Dave Morin, a former facebooker, which limits photo - it's a photo moment sharing site app that is limited to fifty people. Very intimate, very nice, very secure. It has a whole different vibe. The people are sharing their experiences. And there's a group text like GroupMe and Baluga, which have been - have exploded into our public consciousness and the media's taking a - taking a - paying a lot of attention to it. And it's being proven right here on site as being one of the most useful ways that people can physically navigate the festival. Because online is great and wonderful, but if you are here - or anywhere in your life - what you really want to do is enjoy where you are right now. And we're seeing these extraordinarily easy to use, cheap or inexpensive or completely free, apps that let you enjoy your day to day, moment to moment life more now. And I think that's pretty exciting.
Bough: Very exciting.
Well, just one last question for each of you. You've gotten kicked off here at South by Southwest. What's got you excited you this year, what's the thing that you're looking forward to the most?
Bough: The people. I love South by Southwest because of the people. And the passion. You've talked about it - you know - but I mean, look the ethos here is that every single person is moving the world forward and doing amazing wonderful things and the - I think the toughest thing is that you can't meet every single person, as hard as you try. But I think the people.
McGirt: It is. It's those random moments - those serendipitous random moments where you just have an inspiring experience, a conversation, you observe something, you see a demo, or you hear some music, you see some film, and you cannot predict it. That's the best part of showing up. You cannot predict it. There's no directory that can help you, there's no app that can help you, you just have to be here with an open heart, and that's what I love the most about South by.
With this year, with the help of both Fast Company and PepsiCo, with South by Southwest going online, do you think that there's an opportunity for us to keep that spirit, that excitement, the connectivity going between events - from March this year into next year?
Bough: I definitely - again, this is the first time ever that it's happened, and I'm so excited that we've been able to partner with South by to bring - to make that happen because I truly believe that the comp that that's created is the type of - is the important content to how the world is becoming digitally adept and seeing the digital transformation that we're all going through. But I think that even more than that, what I'm so excited about is it will continue to bring more people to South by Southwest. It will continue to raise the awareness of what's happening at this fabulous place. And so that's the most exciting, I think.
McGirt: I agree. Somebody's going to figure out a way to measure the innovation that happens in the rest of the world because of something that they saw or heard or heard about here at South by, and until that happens it's just an act of faith but I know it's happening.