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Every year I make the promise that I will journey to South by Southwest for the Interactive and Music festivals.  Unfortunately, I am on the sidelines again this year.  But thanks to the power of Social Media, I am able to follow the conference this year like never before.  And through that remote following, I’ve been watching a company that is really showing big brands how to act in this new digital space.

I am talking about PepsiCo’s sponsorship of South by Southwest ’09.  If you haven’t heard about the program yet, I think Josh Karpf (Pepsico’s Social Media Manager) best summed up the experiment on the official event blog (bold italics are my doing):

We’re thrilled to be participating in this program and this massive event… So why SxSW?  For a company like ours to stay sharp and innovative, we need to stay connected to emerging themes and trends. Nowhere is this more true then with interactive, digital and social media.  SXSW is where a lot big ideas break; where big thinkers ideate and where connections and introductions are made. We want to come down there and learn as much as we can. With that in mind we are bringing a team from within our company to be our “eyes and ears” on the ground, reporting live from the conference via this blog; you may see them shooting video, taking notes, or pictures during the conference.

The PepsiCo sponsorship of SXSW 2009 revolves around four specific activations:

  1. Podcast Playground:  In partnership with Blog Talk Radio, the Playground is located at the Austin Convention Center.  It is a place to either hang-out with the PepsiCo crew or even podcast live.
  2. PepsiCo Zeitgeist:  As a remote participant, this is my favorite part.  It is a Twitter visualization to track what people are talking about and where the parties are at.  PepsiCo also gets cred for partnering with the folks at Slash7 (folks behind Twistori) to create the experience instead of just having one of their digital agencies make it.
  3. What’s Your Pitch – This is a chance to “elevator pitch” a unique business idea that would make the world a better place. The business idea should leave a positive impact on the world –at PepsiCo they call it Performance with Purpose. The final winner will receive  $4,500 and will be announced May 7th, on Blog Talk Radio.
  4. Social Experiment;  PepsiCo could have just used marketing dollars for the above.  Instead, they decided to walk the talk and send 10 PepsiCo employees to SXSW.  It was a diverse group from across the company including folks from Corporate Communications, Marketing, IT and Product Development.  They posted on the aforementioned official blog, through several Twitter accounts and even with a couple of vidoes on YouTube like the one below (click through for full post).

So what is it that I like so much from this program?  Why should other brands follow the example of PepsiCo?

Because PepsiCo is learning by doing and that is at the heart of Social Media

Let’s face it…the world of digital marketing is a lot different than the world of Mass Media.  In the old world of marketing, you could spend a couple of hundred thousand dollars creating a brilliant TV spot and then spend a few more million dollars on media to broadcast that spot all over the place.  Digital Marketing is not like that.

Digital requires you to be hands on.

You have to be listening.

You have to be talking.

And you have to be engaging.

Through their sponsorship of SXSW, PepsiCo is showing that they understand this new world order of digital marketing.  They are challenging their employees to get their hands dirty and learn by doing.  They will be able to see first hand how Social Media is changing the way of doing business.

You see, when sitting in cubicles at work, things like Tweet-ups sound awfully strange.  But the 10 PepsiCo employees who are making their way to South by Southwest will see that Social Media is at its heart a way to foster stronger community and connections with interesting people.  The Brand Managers will see that they can’t just create a Facebook Fan Page or Twitter account and expect people  to be interested.  They will see that they – the Brand Managers – need to be the human face of the brand and not just hide behind a logo or TV spot.

This is a lesson you cannot teach employees through a powerpoint presentation or even an interesting speaker.  You can only teach them the lesson through learning by doing.  Congrats to PepsiCo for having the guts to go beyond a marketing sponsorship and show that big brands and interested in joining the party… not crashing the party

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