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PepsiCo Power Garden

Pepsico's socially powered vegetable patch demonstrates how powerful – and fickle – social media can be

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By Jennifer Faull, Deputy Editor

October 14, 2013 | 3 min read

It claimed to be a world first – a social media enabled vegetable patch where tweets activated sprinkler systems, and plants ‘responded’ to touch. But why aren’t more people talking about it?

A vegetable patch kept alive by the power of social media silently launched in Chicago this summer, where with every tweet sent to a dedicated Twitter account a plant was watered. Developed for Pepsico’s health juice brand Naked Juice, in partnership with charitable organisation Wholesome Wave, the socially powered vegetable patch was lauded a “first of its kind interactive experiment in urban agriculture that transformed Naked Juice ingredients into simple, organic circuits.”The idea was simple. A sprinkler system was rigged up to switch on and hydrate the 238 vegetable plants in the garden every time someone sent a water-related tweet to @thepowergarden. People could even watch the veggies – which ranged from tomatoes and peppers to purple carrots – being drenched in real-time via a livestream. Offline, the ideas was equally impressive. To make the vegetable patch interactive for members of the local community, whenever the plants were stroked an electrical impulse was emitted which culminated in a sound, or ‘chorus’. “The overarching message was about reinforcing the very local community connection to agriculture and to sourcing and eating produce and products that are, from a proximity standpoint, local and fresh and natural,” explained Sam Olstien, managing director, Ignition Factory, the OMD agency behind the initiative. He added that it took around six to eight weeks to develop alongside London experiential agency Curb. However the world’s first social media enabled vegetable patch did not generate as much online comment as one might have anticipated. In fact Pepsico seemed to hide the project under a bit of a bushel.Some have speculated that this was down to a $9m lawsuit against Naked Juice for allegedly using genetically modified ingredients. The case was settled in August, just as the project was coming to fruition. This explains limited PR activity that resulted in only 292 tweets sent. Facebook interactions also stagnated at only 3,364 meaning after its three month stint, its social channels, including the livestream page, had only gathered a handful of followers. 132 combined to be exact.With the locals, however, the initiative did prove popular as the garden received over 1.3 million touches. Turnip, surprisingly, was the most popular veg for the masses. And so the exciting little vegetable patch in the heart of downtown Chicago disappeared as quickly and quietly as it sprouted. The yield was eventually harvested by students from Washburn Culinary Institute and used in a Labour Day cooking demonstration with famed chef, Vincent Jackson.This was originally published in The Drum's 11 October issue, which announced The Dadi Awards winners and featured an interview with the agency behind Breaking Bad's social media. You can buy a copy here.
PepsiCo Power Garden

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