Pepsi-iTunes Promo: 5 Million Songs

[frankly]

I did not see a single bottle that offered the promotion, and I'm in NJ, the junk food and soda capital of the world. Shocking! I never saw the ad for the promotion after the super bowl, way to go Pepsi, way to suck!

And yet there is another guy from NJ that won so many times that he is giving away 8 codes over on the MacAddict forums.

Later, Frank

 

[OnaMacSince1989]

Redeemed over a dozen!

Looks like a lot of winning caps were in Central Ohio...I redeemed over a dozen caps and didn't really drink any more than normal. Seemed to find a winner better than 1/3rd of the time. I also never had any trouble finding the iTunes bottles in stores. With this type of 'contest', a 5% redemption rate is actually very good. I'm sure Apple is very pleased with the results.

 

[frankly]

As of right now I've redeemed 195 songs....yes 195, that's not a typo. I'd say close to 130 were found/given to me. I would raid the recycling bins at college and got several caps. Two Pepsioholics gave me all of their caps that they had won. The rest of them I bought. My area had really good distribution of caps.

I thought the limit was 100?

 

[bertagert]

I thought the limit was 100?

10 songs a day and 200 total.

 

[echeck]

*raises hand*

Yet another victim of horrible distribution. Not a single iTMS pepsi sold in or around where I live. I did buy four bottles of Sierra Mist (didn't win once) at one point because I was on vacation in a larger city.

I hate all cola drinks, Dew is my nector of choice, but the caps were only on Pepsi cola and Sierra Mist...at least what I saw anyway.

Absolutely horrible, way to go Pepsi. Too bad Apple won't extend the deadline.

 

[mjtomlin]

Poor execution....

It sounded good when Steve announced it, "300 million bottles - 100 million winning caps" Apparently most of those bottles are still sitting in a warehouse somewhere? Some stores in Cleveland, OH had the bottles, but not many. I actually don't drink Pepsi, but a friend kept giving me his caps ... 17 free downloads, oh yea!

 

[nagromme]

It's not Apple's deadline to extend. It's a Pepsi promo, Pepsi pays for the redeemed songs, and Pepsi controls the details.

The funny part will come when people find iTunes bottles after it's over, and miss the fine print, and download iTunes anyway. They'll then find a free song from Apple on the home page, and be hooked on iTunes after all

So Apple still has lots of free iTunes ads on Pepsi labels

 

[Trimix]

sheesh, only 5 million out of 100 million. That's not a good promotion.

Sorry, but the opposite is true - lots of bruhahaha, and look what it cost them - zilch, so for Pepsi this is a sure winner. Lots of attention for relatively little investment.

 

[Windowlicker]

I have to say, the five percent doesn't surprise me. When I drink a Pepsi, I'm not in a position to download music. I might be out shopping, or in the park taking a walk. I'm not going to hang on to a winning bottle cap for a lousy single song.

It's the same thing with contests at McDonalds, etc. If I win a free order of fries, I tend just to throw it away--I'm at McDonalds, so I've just eaten, and even if I did manage to save it for next time, why would I cash in my free fries--generally the value meal costs the same as buying a big mac and a coke and getting the fries for free.

my point exactly. you couldn't have said it better.

 

[SiliconAddict]

Don't know. Don't care. I had a friend give me their cap and that account for 100% of the tunes I obtained for free. *shrugs* its a buck. Its not like I'd win the lotto so all told I purchased 1 Pepsi to try my luck which in that case wasn't that lucky. Now if we were talking winning an album (9.99+ value) that would be a different matter. As it stand *shrugs* don't really care. I have a feeling that most people who did win a tune probably felt the same.
Look at it this way. Someone walks off the street picks up a winning bottle. What is required to redeem that .99 cent song? Install software on your computer, create an iTunes account, figure out how to redeem the track (I've had a few friend who have won who couldn't figure out how to redeem the track. Never mind that it was staring them right in the face on iTMS's home page.) and purchase a single song. That's a whole heck of a lot of work for a .99 cent track.
Or maybe not. Who knows.

 

[Windowlicker]

I would raid the recycling bins at college and got several caps.

haha! you have any idea how silly that sounds?!! but I have to admit the volume you redeemed those tunes is quite impressive..

 

[Lancer]

Only in the US

Atleast people in the US had some chance to get free iTunes.

Outside the US after 1 year we still have no iTMS, we had no Pepsi promotion and we can't even access the newly anounced free songs.

 

[bankshot]

Did anyone see any bottles in the L.A. area? All I saw were the cups at 7-Eleven. I was 0-5 with those. Seems like it was more of a marketing flop on Pepsi's part. Weren't they also slow getting the bottles out to the areas that did get them?

I've been seeing them just about everywhere in Orange county and LA county the last week or two. Waaaay too late. Pepsi blames it on the supermarket strike?? Yeah right! More like that freaking Lakers promotion that went on forever. God I hate the Lakers!

I did play early on with the 7-Eleven cups. Made out just slightly above 33% before I quit. Most music I want is full albums and isn't in the iTMS anyway. Then I found 6 songs I wanted recently so I started getting cups again until the bottles showed up. Amazingly I was 3 for 3 on the bottles without even peeking (well, not as amazing as my 7 for 8 run with the cups one week). Got my 6 songs, so while it's tempting to go grab as many bottles as I can until Friday, I won't.

One thing to look for: some 7-Elevens have a coupon where if you buy a sandwich (you know, in that tiny, tiny section of the store with healthy foods) you get a free Sierra Mist. That's how I got my 3 caps, totally free! Just be sure you don't get the chicken salad sandwich. The turkey and swiss was MUCH better.

 

[Peej]

SoCal

I never saw any. SoCal was screwed.

Yeah, I didn't see any, from Pasadena to Malibu and every point in-between. Bummer, dude.

 

[Savage Henry]

As much as I would have liked more, I doubt that if the promo had been in the UK I reckon only 2-3% would have redeemed. Perhaps Steve's fabled remark about 'sugar water' has come back to bite him on the ass.

Although I do think that Pepsi could have done better, but Pepsi is as Pepsi does ...

 

[five04]

i won 3 songs. then again i only bought 3 bottles. pepsi is rather expensive and when i do buy it i get it in 2 litre bottles. this was pathetic marketing from pepsi but then again, i don't think they wanted too many people to actually redeem the songs. they got a lot of media without having to pay too much. it seems to me that apple got the shaft on this deal.

 

[Hugh]

Don't feel bad

Don't feel bad guys. Here in Erie PA, I only saw 3 caps here. I happen to win one. But the places around here didn't have any, not to mention that any one that sold Pepsi here had it on sale. You can get Pepsi pretty cheap during that whole time with the iTunes. That's cook if you are a Pepsi drinker, bad if you wanted iTunes caps.

-Hugh

 

[MarkCollette]

Does your post have anything to do with the promotion, which is the thread's topic? It's nice that you care so much but considering that you're completely off-topic, your post could be deleted. (So could mine since I'm responding to yours!)

I never saw any iTunes bottles in the Orlando area. I'm not a Pepsi drinker but I usually look for Apple-related promotions.

Oh, yeah If people save their money from buying not pop and from avoiding health problems, then they can afford to buy more Macs!

And on a side note: When is Apple going to open the Canadian iTunes store !?! We have some other option here, for $0.99 per track, but it's WMA, which I won't touch with a ten foot pole. We're waiting for you Apple! And at my University, we've got a Pepsi only contract, so they should feel free to partner with Pepsi here too Then I could get the caps from friends

 

[reyesmac]

Heres an idea

Why not give away songs randomly to people who buy iTunes music. It would be like a lottery, if I buy a song, I have a 1 in 10 chance of winning an album. Something like that. The odds have to be good and the amount of songs has to be big. Its not like it costs them much to do that, seeing as how they can give away so many songs like they tried to do with Pepsi.

 

[applefans]

Pepsi drinkers ? computer music fans

sheesh, only 5 million out of 100 million. That's not a good promotion.

How many active computers users among pepsi drinkers?
How many music fans among active computer users who are pepsi drinkers?
How many music fans who are active computer users as well as pepsi drinkers?
How many music fans + active computer users + pepsi drinkers have iTunes?
How many music fans + active computer users + pepsi drinkers having iTunes care about this promotion?
How many music fans who are iTune users that care about this promotion and are active computer users who drinks pepsi did buy pepsi during this period?

5 % is a reasonable percentage. I am happy for Steve Jobs who make such a big noise with so little cost.

 

[Llywelyn]

Part of it is that in some regions (e.g., New Orleans) there were competing promotions running from pepsi--something involving Hornets tickets that took precedence. I never even saw a bottle for iTunes the entire time during the promotion.

 

[Nermal]

Atleast people in the US had some chance to get free iTunes.

Outside the US after 1 year we still have no iTMS, we had no Pepsi promotion and we can't even access the newly anounced free songs.

I tried to download one of those "free" songs, and it asked me for a credit card number

What's even more annoying is that Apple said iTMS was coming to NZ in February 2004, um it's April now so where is it?

 

[Chip NoVaMac]

5% = redeemed
3% = apple's marketshare


So it looks like some PC users redeemed their free tracks.

wish it was more, but that works!

Actually in a redemption type of promo 5% is actually very high.

Also look at from Pepsi's standpoint. They probably didn't want to give away $100 million dollars away anyhow. That was probably the reason for the lack of promotion. Apple carried the ball for them on that.

I also stated back at the start how do we truly know that Pepsi would put 100 million caps out there? Couple that with poor distribution of the caps around the country.

 

[Chip NoVaMac]

I redeemed 59 myself. Would have bought more, but supplies dried up late-February. Had a fun time explaining to my wife why I was buying 99 cent Diet Pepsi 20 oz. bottles six at a time when I could buy a 24 pack of 12 oz. cans for the same price.

My partner and i redeemed a total of 284 between the two of us. And would have had more if the bottles didn't disappear from the shelves only after one month.

 

[proglife]

I think from from a marketing prospective 5% is pretty good. They usually only expect a 1% to 3% return on marketing campaigns.

You have to keep in mind that many people do not own a computer; many people do not know what iTunes is; many people are lazy and will never figure it out. When you start accounting for those people and how many people drink such and such softdrinks, your expectations will lower.

I couldn't agree more. If you think this is a failure then I think you fell hard for the 100 million songs spin. Do you think they were sitting around the board room saying "we're actually going to give away 100 million songs"? I think iTMS would be sweating hard right now if they had to give away that many.

THIS IS A POSITIVE FOLKS! 5 MILLION downloads is very very very good.

iTunes caps were abundant around here (Annapolis, MD). I won about 40% of the time, but my boss won about 80% of the time.