GOOD's latest video for the Pepsi Refresh Project, to launch the second year. Brett, Max, Pete and Jordan did awesome work. again.

That is the bet that PepsiCo made when it walked away from spending $20 million on television spots for Pepsi during last year’s Super Bowl and plowed the money into a monthly online contest for people to submit their ideas and compete for votes to win grants.

Withdrawing from the Super Bowl for the first time in 23 years and giving the money away for the Pepsi Refresh Project was considered a gamble by the beverage maker as it explored the potential of social media and cause-related marketing to make a difference in its business. But the company, despite accusations that some winners used questionable voting tactics, says it was a huge success and plans to expand it beyond the United States this year.

There is no shortage of crowdsourced ideas to clean up the Gulf oil disaster, but Pepsi is the first to step in with crowdsourced solutions to help the Gulf communities affected by BP's monumental blunder. The Do Good for the Gulf Initiative--an extension of Pepsi's Refresh Project campaign--will award $1.3 million in grants to projects that help Gulf residents.

Pepsi will accept submissions starting on July 12 for the initiative, which is offering multiple $5,000, $25,000, $50,000, and $250,000 grants to the projects that receive the largest number of votes from online visitors. Voting closes on July 16, or when Pepsi gets 1,000 submissions.

There are a number of requirements for potential ideas--most notably, they can't be related directly to environmental impact and clean-up efforts. Instead, projects have to impact local communities and be executable within a year. It's an important distinction, especially since other organizations (i.e. the X Prize Foundation) are already offering hefty amounts of cash for oil disaster engineering solutions.

Like the larger Refresh Project, The Do Good for the Gulf Initiative is a relatively cheap way for Pepsi to get some press while polishing their halo. And make no mistake, the Refresh Project has done plenty--since launching in January, the initiative has awarded $7 million in grants. But consumers who really want to make a difference might also consider ditching the energy-intensive bottled drinks (Aquafina water, anyone?) produced by PepsiCo.

[Do Good for the Gulf]

via fastcompany.com

Twelve creatives. Four teams. Four weeks. One social problem. This is Yoxi, and it's launching its pilot program today. We thought it was a pretty great idea, so here at GOOD we're helping behind-the-scenes to make sure it's a success.

Yoxi (pronounced YO-see) is a new problem-solving model that hopes to frame social innovation around friendly competition. Four teams will spend the next four weeks creating an initiative that increases the number of cyclists on the streets of urban areas. Guided by a team of professional mentors, the teams will craft a pitch for a solution that could range from a new product to a government initiative. Here's a look at the teams:

Each week, the teams will present their thinking, and eventually their solution, in the form of videos, which will be posted on the site. You'll get to be a part of the process by voting for your favorites. The winning team gets $5,000 to donate to the nonprofit of their choice that can help implement the solution.

Head on over to Yoxi.tv where you can get to know the teams and help them get started by answering questions about your own biking behavior. Then stay tuned on June 23, when the teams will be posting their first rounds of videos. We'll drop an update here to remind you.

When we embarked on the Pepsi Refresh Project four months ago, we weren’t entirely sure what to expect. We knew we wanted to do good- to help people refresh their lives, neighborhoods, and maybe even the world. But we left how to do it in the hands of the American people…

This isn’t to say we don’t have a theory of change- our theory depends on the American people. We think that there are amazing ideas out there in this country, ideas that can improve everyone’s life if only a little financial muscle gets put behind them.

Two years ago, we started the Pepsi Optimism Survey, and found that Americans believe that individuals and their ideas can change the world. We believe that too. In fact we’ve been asking people how they would change the world, and this year, we wanted to help them make it happen.

That’s what Pepsi Refresh is about: empowering ideas that will make a difference. We’ve all been there, working away at an idea because we think it’s good. Well, with Pepsi Refresh, if you can use your voice, your community, and the internet to promote your idea, you can get the funding you need to make it a reality.

We’ve already discovered that it’s not just who has the biggest following on Twitter or who can get their Refresh idea on national TV. Groups like the community around the Springfield Middle School have banded together and won multiple times, but it’s because they’ve gotten out the vote in their community.

We’ve been working hard to give everyone with an idea the tools they need to get a grant. If you haven’t yet, read Neighborhoods Ambassador Kyla Fullenwider’s excellent post on how to run a Pepsi Refresh campaign. Kyla and the other Ambassadors are a resource as well-  reach out to them if you have questions about best campaign practices.

RefreshEverything.com is the heart of the program, and we want to make sure that it allows the community to find and vote for ideas that will make a difference. We’ve introduced comments on the idea pages, so that people can share their evaluation of each idea. Not only does this let people publicly proclaim which ideas they support, it also gives the idea generators the needed feedback to refine their ideas if they aren’t successful.

You can now find ideas by location, and see them plotted on a map; this way, you can see which ideas will have an impact in your neighborhood. And we’ve even devised a system that has streamlined the submission process for those who start and save their ideas during the month.

The first few rounds of grant recipients are already out there, starting to change the world. In the coming months, we’re going to see just how much good they do. Until then, do you have a suggestion for how we can improve Pepsi Refresh?

Leave it in the comments.

Bonin Bough
Global Director of Digital and Social Media, PepsiCo