 |
Search |
|
|
|
|
Classic 2 Guys |
|
10 Random Stories:
|
|
|
|
Is the Pepsi/iTunes Promotion Working? |
|
 Well, it's been a few weeks since the
iTunes and Pepsi cross promotion kicked off during the Super Bowl, and new bottles bearing free songs have been working their way across the U.S.. Pepsi has been playing tons of commercials over radio and TV as well as erecting displays for the promo in certain "quickie mart" stores.
But is it really working? Is Apple really getting repeat business from new customers because of the promo? We briefly mentioned this on Friday but I'd like to analyze it a bit further.
Personally, I had been an iTunes Music Store (iTMS) customer since the store opened, but I was excited about this deal because, hey, free music! Ignoring the fact that you have to pay somewhere between 90¢ and $1.19 for a soda where you have a 1 in 3 chance of winning a 99¢ song, it's still a very intriguing prospect.
When iKen told me he found the new bottles in the Lima, Ohio area, I made it a point to stop at several stores looking pick a couple up. Keep in mind that I'm not a Pepsi drinker (on occasion with some Jim Beam, it's great). I don't like Diet Pepsi or Sierra Mist. I used to drink Mountain Dew by the bucketful, but then I realized that a thousand extra empty calories a day wasn't really doing me too much good! (Sure as hell tastes good and gives you that oh-so-needed caffiene buzz though!)
But regardless, I'd pretty much given up on pop at this point in my life. (I now look to coffee to fill the caffiene void.) So why in the hell would I buy pop that I don't really even like just for the prospect of winning a free song?
I don't know.
I do know that when I bought a couple bottles for my girlfriend and I, we opened one (a winner) and gave the bottle to a co-worker to drink.
Also, after waiting an interminably long time to see the new bottles in the pop machine at work, I actually bought a Diet Pepsi because it was the only one with the new packaging. I think I was about ten years old the last time I drank a Diet Pepsi. It's not really so bad after a while, sort of an acquired taste. Much like drinking grapefruit juice, or motor oil, or orange-flavored beer.
So while there is a sort of excitement for Mac users to purchase the iTunes bottles, what about the rest of the country? Are PC users as hyped as we are about the promotion? Getting back to the whole point here, is the campaign effective?
I know of a few people (non-Mac users) that are aware of the promotion and are actively trying to get more bottlecaps. One guy actually has his family and friends looking for the bottlecaps all over the place, even in trash and whatnot (which is a really good idea provided you have the stomach for it and no pride whatsoever!).
What do you think? Is the promotion working? Are you drinking more Pepsi - or at least buying the bottles and giving them away? What about PC users? We'd really love to hear from you on this!
And on a side note, do you find it more difficult to select the free song that you won as opposed to just buying something? It took me a day and a half to finally select this gem. And yes, you're allowed to laugh, that's sort of the point ;)
|
|
February 16 2004, 8:10 AM EDT, by
 |
Comments:
|
| Sure winner |
2/16/04, 11:31 AM EDT |
Hey, go to a Sam's Club or BJ's (buying in bulk stores). They have the 24 crate of the iToons Pepsi bottles (same ones that come right off the truck). The first of every 3 bottles (in a line, long ways) in the crate are winners, switch them around and there ya go, 24 winning bottles. I'm still working on my crate, but so far so good.
If you want to thank me for this bit of info, don't go to any Southern NJ bulk buying stores, I call them already! :)
|
| Bobby |
2/16/04, 12:08 PM EDT |
Well, it's been frustrating here in Detroit. Neither the downtown stores nor the suburbs have any bottles (that I can see, after MUCH recruiting) with the iTunes tops.
A respite, however: 7-11 offers fountain cups with the iTunes code rolled into the rim. This allows you, if you choose, to drink any flavor of soda available to pour... a needed relief for Coke heads (so to speak).
I have won 5 tunes (out of 7 cups) so far.
|
| HTML Samurai |
2/16/04, 1:17 PM EDT |
I think it is working... I bought a Pepsi today (even though I really don't like it) just because I'm gonna get a pop anyway, might as well try for a free song while I'm at it! But of course I didn't win - just my luck!
|
| darknite |
2/16/04, 3:32 PM EDT |
I'm glad to hear that some people are finding the iTunes bottles and cups. None have shown up where I live. Some have appeared 35 miles north, but I don't want to waste the time and gas to go searching there.
I think this promotion would have a real killer if the bottles had been in place by Feb 1, and the promotion extended longer.
|
| Ned B |
2/16/04, 4:18 PM EDT |
I think it's stupid for Apple to partner up with Pepsi. At least using a Mac won't make you fat and rot your teeth... I think! Apple should partner up with Amnesty Intl or thehungersite.com - what happened to their anti-Big Brother stance? I guess they just got too greedy, right? What's next, you say? I bet McDonalds... barf!
|
| dduff617 |
2/16/04, 6:37 PM EDT |
the superbowl tv ad was bad - it was neither catchy nor funny and the featured character really wasn't anyone that would inspire anyone to buy pespi or use itunes. the distribution has been slow (i've seen no bottles in local ma stores so far). pepsi's support for the promotion seems half-hearted at best (note that they ran other non-itunes related ads during the superbowl, watering down their message).
|
| iKen |
2/16/04, 7:56 PM EDT |
I actually found itunes pepsi bottles in Lima the friday before the superbowl... I was quite happy. :)
|
| okcalla |
2/16/04, 11:41 PM EDT |
ive seen no 2 liter pepsi bottles however i have seena lot of 20 oz pepsi bottles and for those of you in lima most of them are in a cridersville daves in a lil stand by the front office!!!
|
| okcalla |
2/17/04, 12:02 AM EDT |
one thing about sure winners plan. if someone did it b4 you, you just bought 24 losers! now what???
|
| rlhamon |
2/17/04, 8:58 AM EDT |
i let you'll into a secrete .. tilt a 20oz pepsi until you can see under the cap .. if you see a group of letters that don't spell anything you got your self a winner. i now have won 12 out of the past 12 by doing this technique.
|
| gotcha |
2/17/04, 9:54 AM EDT |
Couple of comments from Los Angeles. I have looked in several stores for the 20 oz Pepsi bottles with iTunes markings and they do not seem to exist here in the Los Angeles area. Oh, you can find the 20 oz bottles if you look hard enough, but all the 20 oz bottles I have been able to find have either had no give-away markings or some Laker Basketball thing. And the 20 oz bottles which I have seen have been sufficiently expensive to make the deal unattractive (unless you do the inversion trick ...). So, I guess I am not that disappointed. But, if I were Steve Jobs I guess I would go back and look at the Pepsi contact and see just what they promised. No iTunes bottles in Los Angeles? Was that part of the deal?
|
| Jonahan |
2/17/04, 10:35 AM EDT |
Wow, I had no clue bottles haven't made it to so many places around the country yet. We're in rural Ohio and I thought that if they made it here (although they're still somewhat rare) that they'd be almost everywhere.
As far as the "cheating" goes, does anyone have a way to find out if bottles inside a vending machine are winners? I'm working on some Mission Impossible tactics, but so far I've had no luck.
|
| Binky |
2/17/04, 2:16 PM EDT |
Here in Manhattan, I've yet to see a single bottle. We've still got the SuperBowl promo bottles. I gather people here don't drink a lot of Pepsi (or Mystic).
|
| HTML Samurai |
2/18/04, 1:16 PM EDT |
I fell for it again! Stupid Pepsi!
|
| Lou |
2/19/04, 2:36 PM EDT |
None in New York either. Hmmm.
|
| Jonahan |
2/20/04, 8:02 AM EDT |
Hmmm ... rlhamon, your tilt method is all over the net! And you said it first. :)
Guess we shoulda yelled it loudly from the rooftops and then WE coulda been the ones featured on CNN: http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/internet/02/19/pepsi.itunes.promotio n/index.html
'Course that's not our style, plus our server couldn't handle the load. Ah well, every dog has it's day! And every rose has it's thorns. And eeeeevery Pepsi bottle, sings a sad, sad tune. Er ... I'll stop now. ;)
|
| rlhamon |
2/20/04, 5:58 PM EDT |
well if we yelled it then we would became the office joke. actually these guy's are out of new mexico and from what i understand the website is still new. well to those guy's thanks for visiting the 2 guy's website.
Also did anyone else see the "POP" shot they took at Bill Palmer?
|
| Jonahan |
2/20/04, 6:56 PM EDT |
I saw it but now I don't see it on their page. MAybe they were feeling guilty or something and pulled that part, who knows.
I'm not sure but I think MacMerc.com has been around for a while :-
|
| geowar |
3/3/04, 1:31 PM EDT |
Can you say eBay? Click here!
|
This article is archived, so you may not comment on it.
(The good news is there's always the shoutbox, the forums or the contact form if you're socially-inclined at the moment!)
|
|
|
|
Site Links |
|
|
|
|
Deep Thoughts |
|
|
I can picture in my mind a world without war, a world without hate. And I can picture us attacking that world, because they'd never expect it.
|
|
Around Da Web |
|
| iProng: |
iPhone steals show at CTIA Wireless 2007
|
DLO offers dual cover fashion case for iPod
|
AT&T received 1M inquiries on iPhone
|
| MacDailyNews: |
Ars Technica in-depth review: Apple TV ?impressed all those who touched it?
|
Inside Apple?s Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard Server OS
|
The chips inside Apple TV
|
| Think Secret: |
Adobe Creative Suite 3 pricing revealed
|
|
|
We Like: |
|
|
|
|
Side Projects |
|
Jonahan
- JediPoker.net
- Jonahan.com
- iProng
- MacProng
iKen
Jedbeck
J.P.
|
|
