Everyone wants to be the next Foursquare, however it’s soft drink giant Pepsi that is actually getting in on the ground floor and leveraging its commitment to social media and crowd sourcing through a new program that will see some of the best and brightest ideas brought out of their incubation period.

Pepsi has partnered with Highland Capital Partners and Mashable to search out new ideas in social media in a project called the Innovative Incubator Program, PepsiCo10, as a part of the Pepsi Refresh Project. (more…)

PepsiCo is taking advantage of the 2010 Census with a new initiative called Yo Sumo, which is Spanish for I Count. The campaign aims to encourage the Hispanic community to go beyond just being counted numerically and to share their experiences that have shaped the American landscape.

Actress Eva Longoria Parker is making a documentary based on the user-generated content (UGC) stories posted on the campaign website set up by Pepsi.

“We felt the Hispanic consumer needs to go beyond simply being counted, and count,” said Martha Bermudez, Pepsi’s senior marketing manager, multicultural marketing. “Pepsi partnered with Eva Longoria Parker, who will direct and produce [the documentary]. We want to bring the stories to life in a creative and compelling film.” (more…)

PepsiCo has pulled the plug on an iPhone application that it launched earlier this month for its AMP Energy brand after a week of criticism on various social media sites from fans that say the marketing effort was sexist.

Social media is not only a powerful tool for marketers but in its truest form it is a tool for the people. Fans spoke their minds about the Amp Up Before You Score application through well-known networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. (more…)

MOFILM, a leader in sourcing user-generated content (UGC) for TV, online and mobile just announced itself as the main sponsor for the Times BFI 53rd London Film Festival. Open to entrants of all skills - and over the age of 16 - from around the world, the competition will be looking for advertisements for some of the biggest brands today. (more…)

PepsiCo is upping the ante with a new social media and crowd sourcing campaign The Dew Labs Challenge. Joining the far reaching capabilities of social networks and the online world’s love of being heard, Mountain Dew is once again demonstrating what a valuable marketing tool social media campaigns really are.

Last year the caffeine beverage company launched a campaign, DEWmocracy, for participants to select the new Mountain Dew flavour - they chose Voltage. The success of that campaign has given the company measurable results and enough confidence to do it all over again, only this time on a greater scale. (more…)

While many journalists are left questioning job security in the mass layoffs occurring in the media industry as of late, PepsiCo is launching an open newsroom experiment in an effort to align the brand with the social media space.

The soft drink giant will be hiring nine people to use blogs, Twitter and web videos to capture events from Internet Week, running June 1-8 in New York. The program will be open to journalists, students, social media specialists, and anyone who enjoys reporting via social media tools. (more…)

What could be the largest user-generated content (UGC) contest to date has been announced by MOFILM, a company that creates video content for mobile and web applications. The contest called MOFILM User-Generated Content Initiative brings together some of the biggest brands in the world - Philips, PepsiCo, Visa, HP, Kodak – and asks users to develops video creative for the brands.

Each brand will pick the two best pieces for their brand. These top 20 pieces will be judged by a panel including Hollywood film maker Spike Lee. The winner will be announced in the south of France at The Cannes Lions Advertising Festival in June. (more…)