Pepsi moves massive budget into social media

Coke, the official sponsor of the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, may be a little miffed that a Pepsi World Cup viral has already made the viral charts in the US. Indra Nooyi, Pepsi’s CEO, has said the brand is shifting a third of its entire marketing budget towards social media. However, as you can see from this video ad, ‘social’ doesn’t mean ‘cheap’. It’s a heavily-branded, feel good ad with costly, high-end production values. Not normally the kind of ad that goes viral in Europe. What will Coke respond with?