Apple and Pepsi Do it Again

memoryhole writes "It seems the old Apple/Pepsi team are at it again with an iTunes promotion, or will be very soon -- they'll even notify you by email when it starts. Odds: 1 in 3, this time across the whole line of Pepsi products, including Mountain Dew and Sierra Mist. Maybe this time they'll actually have some in my area."

Comments

Don't forget the iPod mini giveaways

[amichalo]

Apple is also giving away an iPod mini every hour

Re:Don't forget the iPod mini giveaways

[Anonymous Coward]

Mod you +97 INFORMATIVE.

Thank you for providing the exact same link that was in the summary. You are truly a master of this new-fangled interweb hyperlinking thing.

Your family must be proud.

---

You could have at least pointed out that the rules state that the giveaway is for people who redeem the caps, not for just entering your email in the box. See item 7 in the sweepstakes rules

Re:Don't forget the iPod mini giveaways

[Anonymous Coward]

Great that this is modded redundant - even though it is the first post!

did they cheat proof the bottle?

[jxyama]

in the first promotion, you could cheat by tilting the bottle to look at the cap before purchasing. did they fix this? (which would be good in some sense because they'd have to put more soda in there...)

Re:did they cheat proof the bottle?

[Anonymous Coward]

My friend's sister had one of the pepsi guys ask what she was doing when she was checking out the bottles in a grocery store. Her response was something like "if you guys filled it up all the way I couldn't do this." The pepsi guy laughed and helped her find some more bottles with winning caps.

Local college book store had signs infront of the pepsi products "NO LOOKING UNDER THE CAPS UNTIL PURCHASED" at the same time as well.

iPod mini too!

[OmniVector]

they didn't mention it for some reaosn, but you can also expect one ipod mini per hour given away. (of course, the odds are probably pretty awful if you do the math). still, pretty cool.

i think they're nuts for not including the ipod shuffle as part of the giveaway with this, with a higher chance than a mini maybe?

Read the fine print

[amichalo]

Interesting change in the rules:
- 10 redemptions per day
- 200 redemptions total
fine print

I guess this is 10 in 24 hrs, 200 total per iTMS account, not physical person, as a jr/sr may live in the same house and each have an iTMS account.

This should also prevent unintended use of the promotion.

"Apple and Pepsi Do it"

[Fr05t]

I hope they use birth control cause those would be some ugly kids.

Re:I will likely never redeem them.

[jxyama]

i'm pretty sure that's perfectly fine for both pepsi and apple. you bought a drink and apple didn't have to give you a song.

but you will be a minority, i'm fairly sure. many will go through with the iTMS process - afterall, it's "free."

I like the odds

[elecngnr]

Hell, I drink one or two of the 20 oz bottles every week day, so assuming the promotion goes for something like 60 days--I could be wrong on that number--I have a chance to win between 20 and 30 songs. I will probably end up with more from coworkers and others who do not redeem their caps. Last year I ended up with almost 70 songs. But I have had a few coworkers migrate to Apple this year, so they may hold on to them. Kind of win-win for me.

Re:I like the odds

[waynelorentz]

That's pretty much what I did last time. I ended up getting about 40 songs. And since they were free, I ended up trying a bunch of different genres that I normally wouldn't spend actual money on. Some of them I ended up liking and bought more music in those genres, broadening my horizons.

But my stomach still hasn't recovered from all that Pepsi.

Re:I will likely never redeem them.

[teh*fink]

don't waste. post the code on your blog for someone else to use!

It's not quite "again"

[digitalgimpus]

It's actually a slightly improved campaign...

I documented the details on MacVillage.net summarizing how it works:

http://macvillage.net/news/archives/2005/01/18/200 000000-itunes-and-a-bunch-of-silver-ipod-minis/

It's a pretty cool campaign. Odds are you'll end up with something if you buy 3 pepsi's (or other products). And just that 1 chance gets you a bunch of chances at a free iPod mini.

The iPod is branded for Pepsi... so you can most likely get a little extra for it on eBay... since there's a lot of coke/pepsi collectors out there.

That is if you don't want (or already have) an iPod.

Re:It's not quite "again"

[That's Unpossible!]

Odds are you'll end up with something if you buy 3 pepsi's

1 in 3 people will already understand this concept!

Not cost effective

[FangVT]

Last time they did this I went out looking for the products and did some comparisons and calculations. What I found was that, in every supermarket that had the promotional bottles, the promotional bottles were only sold singly, generally out of refrigerated display cases, while the six-packs were non-promotional bottles. Some quick calculations showed that the price difference for buying the six-packs was enough cheaper than the individual bottles that, assuming I hit the average of one in three bottles actually giving me a free song, I would end up paying more per song than the US$.99 that the ITMS charged.

Now this time they've spiked the deal by the inclusion of drawings for special edition (has the Pepsi logo) iPod Minis, so that skews the calculation, but only very slightly.

This really does work for both Pepsi and Apple

[amichalo]

Based on my behavior last year and my excitement about this year's promotion, I would say this is a big win-win for both Pepsi and Apple. If done annually, it may even become as popular as McDonald's Monopoly game, arguably oen fo the most successful giveaways of its kind until they busted the insiders who rigged the Corvette winnings several years in a row (dumb and dumber).

But I digress...

Apple and Pepsi have achieved several goals:
1 - Get the name out. As the even launch data approaches, more and more free publicity will be generated in the main stream (non-tech) media.
2 - Get more people drinking Pepsi. Done. I don't drink Pepsi as a matter of course but will switch from Diet Dr. Peper to Diet Pepsi like Wade Boggs swiched to the Yankees for a chance at a free song and a free iPod mini .
3 - Get more people using (locking in) to iTunes Music Store. Ofcourse Apple wants new people to come to the store and get more tunes but they also want existing iTunes Music Store customers to get in on the act too. Why? Because an existing user has already proven they will pay for iTMS tracks (unless all they have are other giveaways) so if they go to redeem a free song, they might buy one or ten while they are at the store. But most importantly is lockin. Ever song Apple sells today, even if they give them away, just lengthens the lead iTMS/iPod has because if a user is considering a switch from iTMS to say Napster, and they have 100 songs, purchased or free, they are going to say "damn, it will cost me $99 just to get the music I already have at iTMS!"

Okay, they might not say "damn", but they will say the rest.

Re:This really does work for both Pepsi and Apple

[sl3xd]

You're forgetting something: You can still burn a CD from iTunes, and then rip it into whatever format you like. Lock-in isn't even an issue to me. Which do I trust more: A lock-in to what is in the end, Microsoft and it's Windows Media format, or to Apple with its FairPlay-DRM'd AAC?

Napster, along with pretty much every other if iTunes' competitors all use Windows Media -- somehow using Windows Media is more 'open'? There is absolutely nothing about Windows Media that is published, other than how to access and use its libraries. Apple's format has only the DRM unpublished (officially, anyway); the rest is AAC -- a standardized, published format.

Frankly, both aren't the optimum, but I'm far less comfortable with Microsoft holding the leash, and every music purchase from the array of Windows Media hawkers being controlled by Microsoft. I've tried buying music from a Windows Media store, and due to the lousy way Microsoft did WMA's DRM, I lost over $50 in music that is completely unplayable, claiming that I don't have the proper liscence, even though I backed up my 'licence' files, etc. That music store was not at all interested in customer service...

I honestly get sick of people who try to say that choosing an even more proprietary solution is the 'open' way -- espescially when that proprietary solution is Microsoft. Windows Media stores don't offer choice; they are even more restricting than iTunes. I've tried both, and iTunes is easily and handily the best, most 'open' method available. The only difference between Apple and Microsoft's way is that Apple is much more selective in whom can sell products with the 'black box' that decodes iTunes music (Apple and HP). Microsoft was far less discriminating in that respect; but the end result is the same in both cases: The black box is still entirely closed...

They are both closed systems. But I'm willing to live with iTunes, as it's the best solution available at the present time.

Re:Dish 'Em Out

[k_187]

Especially since you can tilt the bottles and see if they're a winner or not. I was 54 for 54 last year in 20oz bottles.