As energy drinks have changed the way we think about soft drinks, they have also changed the way beverage advertising and social media is done. It is interesting to compare the two different approaches from the new school of soft drinks, Monster Energy to the tried and true traditional, Pepsi. Both are represented on all of the major social media websites, however each uses the outlet for a different purpose as they target a different audience and choose to spend their advertising money in totally different ways.
Approach:
Pepsi uses social media in much the same way as they use their website, as a way to get more eyes on their advertisements. Although they have Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube, they only promote the first two.
Flipping Through Pepsi’s social media pages feels much like flipping through the pages of a magazine. Post after post are just traditional product advertising.
Going to the Monster Energy webpage you get a totally different feel. If you didn’t know what Monster Energy is, you wont find out here. The webpage is not made to promote the drink, but the lifestyle. On the front page they give links to all of their social media websites not once, but twice.
Just like Pepsi, they do a good job of keeping the same branding and feel of the webpage across their social media outlets. However; Monster continues their promotion of the lifestyle as opposed to their product. Monster may be spending big bucks on print advertising just like Pepsi, but it doesn’t show, they consistently show off the money they are spending to sponsor events, extreme athletes and party girls.
Numbers:
Even though Monster certainly promotes itself as the cool kid on the block, their numbers don’t necessarily back them up. Pepsi still dominates on followers, likes, talked abouts, and views even with less posts.
Who Wins?
The question of who wins is tough to answer, Pepsi makes more net income in one quarter than monster made in sales all last year, but that also means Pepsi should have a much larger budget and following. Also as the “next generation” of soft drink drinkers grow up, will they still want to look at magazine adds, or guys doing backflips on bicycles? If Pepsi wants to keep their advantage they may have to change the way the talk to the world through social media.