If social media hashtags like #GivingTuesday are any indication, corporate social responsibility has become more and more innovative. In lieu of traditional methods, companies are creating an impact through enlisting their customers to take action right along side them.
Photo Courtesy of Pepsi
A great example of this is Pepsi’s 2010 Refresh Project that came on the heels of the BP Gulf oil spill disaster. Pepsi saw an opportunity to combine social responsibility with social media and aline it with their brand marketing. The Refresh campaign asked people to vote for the best solutions to aid the issues in the Gulf and offered up a sum of $1.3 million towards its clean up. With their socially conscious crowd sourcing efforts, they were able to aline themselves as a brand that cares about the community and gave consumer’s the perception of Pepsi as a forward-thinking, innovative brand.
A socially responsible act or purely a marketing opportunity? You can be the one to decide that. But in all, it exhibited a great mergence of CSR and social media.
Claire Clark
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