SXSW: Why Pepsi Loves Startups

Digiday is at SXSW giving you the latest industry news out of the festival at Austin, Texas. More from the series →

Digiday is at SXSW. We’ll profile startups that solve real problems for brands, agencies and publishers; report the scuttlebutt outside the convention hall; and shoot video interviews with digital media leaders.  Our coverage is made possible through the sponsorship of Vitrue, the social media management platform.


PepsiCo is a major supporter of the startup scene. It’s one of the top sponsors of SXSW, setting up shop in the convention center with a “Pepsi Central Station,” expanding its PepsiCo 10 startup program to India and Brazil and holding an “un-conference” to discuss how companies can operate like startups. The idea behind PepsiCo 10, explained PepsiCo director of digital media Josh Karpf, is for Pepsi to get exposure to the latest innovations while giving startups a case study of how to work with a major brand. Karpf believes brands can learn a lot from the fast, iterative nature of startups.

 

https://digiday.com/?p=8318

More in Media

Podcast companies turn to live events to capture growing advertiser spend

The surge in the number of live podcast events in 2025 reflects a broader shift: advertisers are betting bigger on podcasts — not just as an audio channel but as a full-fledged creator economy play.

Media Briefing: ‘Cloudflare is locking the door’: Publishers celebrate victory against AI bot crawlers 

After years of miserably watching their content get ransacked for free by millions of unidentified AI bot crawlers, publishers were finally thrown a viable lifeline. 

How Vogue could navigate potential industry headwinds as Anna Wintour — who agency execs say made ad dollars flow — brings on new edit lead

Anna Wintour’s successor at Vogue will have to overcome the myriad of challenges facing fashion media and the digital publishing ecosystem.