Pepsi.com Pushes Content for ‘Live For Now’ Campaign

At the end of March, Pepsi launched its new website, which is chock full of content from around the web. The colorful site of the Pepsi Pulse campaign includes trending Twitter topics, news articles, tweets from fans, videos, and photos relating to its slogan, “Live for Now.”

The company’s curation strategy is focused on bringing fans “the most inspiring now moments based on social popularity.”

The content is focused on positivity and “what Pepsi is known for,” says George Smith, senior manager of digital strategy. These topics include music, entertainment, and happenings in the world of pop culture.

“When we were thinking about [the redesign],” he says, “we thought about what was important to our users.”

Bringing fans into the discussion

Pepsi Pulse, according to Smith, is the “core hub of what we’re doing in social. It becomes this place where we can be Pepsi and really bring all these ‘Live for Now’ moments to life in one spot while leveraging what we’re doing on Facebook, Twitter, and social platforms. It really reaches consumers where they’re at. We’re constantly evolving the platform, [and] working with media partners to get borrowed and original content.”

The posted content is chosen by a scoring system on the backend of Pepsi.

“It’s determined by what our fans are talking about,” Smith said. “We leverage the public API to score each article, and the top scoring articles are then published.”

Every day, the site is archived. Users can log on, pick a date, and see what was popular that day on Twitter, news sites such as ABC and the Los Angeles Times, and brand content posted by Pepsi.

A mix of content, with emphasis on human interest

Overall, the content is light, entertainment based, and/or has a human interest aspect. The June 21 page featured an article from the Oregonian about an engaged couple who plan to take Americans out to breakfast on a honeymoon road trip. It also featured a Funny or Die short about “Moonrise Kingdom,” as well as photos of Twitter users who tagged Katy Perry’s new movie, “Part of Me,” in their updates.

While the old Pepsi.com included brand promotions and content related to it, the new site is an evolution of the ‘Live for Now’ message, which extends across digital and non-digital platforms.

So far, Smith says that the redesigned site will continue to offer “features that bring ‘Live for Now’ to life,” including streaming concerts from pop artists.

In an all encompassing social strategy, Pepsi’s goal is to curate an uplifting experience.

“[Pepsi Pulse] is for people who subscribe to the ‘Live for Now’ mindset,” says Smith. “Young or old, it doesn’t matter, as long as you’re living in the moment.”