Miss Diet Pepsi Jordan: A Campaign that Proves Social Media Works in Jordan

Diet Pepsi Jordan recently hosted a huge Facebook campaign to find the next “Miss Diet Pepsi Jordan”.  This campaign is quite unique and has garnered much attention and participation form Jordanians.  Pepsi does a great job promoting  corporate responsibility – as others have noted in this blog – and has been open to using social media to promote the brand both domestically (in the USA) and globally.  Pepsi has successfully carried the mindset to Jordan and they have had done a great job.  Although, as with everything in life, they have much room for overall improvement.

Dynamics of the campaign:  The Miss Diet Pepsi Jordan competition was hosted on Facebook and was open to females in Jordan, ages 18 and up.  Ladies were encouraged to “Fan” the page and formerly apply for the contest.

Prize: The chance to win a JD 5,000 shopping trip to Paris and be named “Miss Diet Pepsi Jordan”.

Execution: On May 22, Diet Pepsi hosted a “Health, Beauty, and Motivational” workshop at which participants were given tips on how to “lead healthy and positive lives”.  The workshop hosted various speakers on topics such as, makeup, nutrition, motivation, and professionalism.  Following the workshop, 12 contestants were chosen based on their “Diet Pepsi Attitude” persona and application.  Following, they participated in a professional photo shoot.  The photos were then uploaded to Facebook and Fans were encouraged to vote for a winner. The contest lasted three weeks.

 

Results: During the campaign, the Facebook page garnered 33,576 Fans or “Likes”.  Those who “Liked” the Facebook page were very active during the campaign. Most posts received hundreds of likes and many comments.  At the beginning of the campaign, there was little engagement, as to be expected with any new venture, and likes and comments remained under 50 per post.  However, towards the end of the campaign the numbers sky-rocketed with hundreds of Fans constantly liking and commenting on every post.  In addition to posting information about the contest, Pepsi would also post daily “tips” that were very receptive by the audience.  

Success metrics are quite obvious:

1. Active engagement and participation considering the limiting demographics: Jordanian women
2. A huge following in a country with little web usage
3. Active use of online and offline tactics to acquire attention and promote the brand 

I really like this campaign because it breaks the mold.  Ultimately, the campaign promoted the product through targeted messaging and gave participants an incentive to connect and participate in the campaign, while always maintaining the “What is Your Pepsi Attitude?” message. However, although Pepsi did a great job with this venture, it is only a start.  Through research, I came across several obvious missed opportunities for Pepsi in Jordan.

Pepsi does not have a Jordan-specific Facebook or Twitter account, though they have created country-specific accounts in many other markets.  For example, Pepsi has created targeted Facebook accounts for Australia, Canada, and even Quebec (a province within Canada), along with many others.  Pepsi Arabia is the only account to serve Jordanians (along with other countries in the Arabian area).  In my opinion, as noted by the activity on other country-specific Pepsi Facebook accounts, Pepsi is missing out on a huge opportunity in Jordan.  With active and timely posting and engagement with the audience and if established, I’m sure the Pepsi Jordan Facebook account would have just as much activity as the Pepsi Arabia account (see below for example).

Furthermore, Pepsi sponsored Jordanian youth travelling to France but didn’t capitalize on the opportunity to garner attention through social media, thus missing out on a chance to promote the brand throughout Jordan and elsewhere.  Pepsi could have created a social media campaign both on the front end and the back end of the contest/campaign.  Most importantly, Pepsi could have used social media to follow the players during the 11-day journey to France, actively promoting the brand along the way both online and offline.

Despite the missed opportunities, Pepsi is off to a great start in Jordan.  Loyal fans and consumers are very receptive to current online messages and have proven they will actively engage with the brand via social media.  In the future, I see Pepsi continuing to engage fans online, expand online brand presence, and also support its mission of social and corporate responsibility through additional social media endeavors and outreach in Jordan.