SILENCE SPEAKS VOLUMES THANKS TO PEPSI

How do you cut through all of the noise and clutter and get viewers to pay attention to your marketing? Do you try to out spend and out shout the crowded field of super brands?  Do you spend your money on celebrities, rock stars, or special effects in the hopes that someone will pay attention?  How about a contest? Do use sex or frat humor?  How about a monkey or a talking baby? 

While the other brands choose to shout an annoy us Pepsi instead chose the bold move of using complete silence with their Bob's House  ad featuring American Sign Language and closed captioning.  Pepsi used silence not for silence sake mind you, but silence to get a message out creating awareness of the deaf and hearing impaired community.   

Silence  alone has been done before and could have been just another gimmick if it wasn't strategically combined with the cause of the deaf.  Pepsi was also smart enough to know that the viewers and Pepsi fans around the country appreciate a good laugh more than a good cry. 

Cause-marketing, combining a brand with a cause, is an important and growing marketing strategy by associating a brand with a cause important to the consumer.  Marketers can mess things up when the cause and brand seem like a mismatch.  I think Pepsi manages to come across with sincerity related to the cause of deafness by also being the sponsor of close-captioning for the Super Bowl and their corporate Enable initiative for employees.  Cause-marketing must be part of a brands integrated marketing communications to be believable.  Do you have any examples of cause-marketing mismatches or particular successes or failures that standout to you? 

Comments

[Karin]

I missed this ad and am thrilled to have found it here. What a great ad - huge impact in a short period of time, funny too! I doubt I'll forget this one.