Pepsi introduced a new pop culture-based rewards program at South By Southwest Tuesday called Pepsi Experience Points, or PXP, which will allow fans to collect points through Pepsi purchases and social media interactions to win exclusive prizes like Monster headphones, Pepsi apparel and tickets to see Beyonce’s Mrs. Carter World Tour.“Its not just about rewarding transactions, it’s about incentivizing and rewarding engagements across everything in the Pepsi Music experience,” says Shiv Singh, global head of digital for PepsiCo Beverages.
PXP includes a partnership with SongBooth, a social music video mobile app that lets users record their own music and share it with others. A special SXSW activation, the Official Pepsi SongBooth Truck, will allow fans to record covers and film music videos of current pop hits and earn the chance to win prizes. Pepsi will also sponsor the SongBooth app for iOS, which has 1.3 million registered users since launching in December.
SongBooth was created in part to create a more curated experience outside the “oversaturated” environment of YouTube, says creator/founder Gregory Lowe. Although users can record full-length songs, they’re streamed in 30-second clips to encourage quick engagement and interactions. “We wanted to give people a way to share their user-generated videos, because so many are uploaded on YouTube and there’s not an easy way to find them,” Lowe says. “The dynamics of social networking are changing, and this gives people a niche avenue to view their content.”
Stars like Miguel and Ryan Beatty have also used the app in its first weeks, with potential for Pepsi-backed artists to show up in the coming months too. “SongBooth helps us continue the conversation we’re having around music, from our big activation with Beyonce at the Super Bowl to the Grammys to working with a few of the artists that we’re building for the rest of the year,” says Javier Farfan, senior director of cultural branding for PepsiCo.
Also later this year, Songbooth will launch a music competition called Project SongBooth for the chance to win a professional music video and a singles deal with a major label. Lowe says Pepsi and SongBooth are in the final stages of talks with two different potential partners.
