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.

 

More in Media

Inside Bloomberg Media’s survival guide for the AI era

The business news publisher has yet to sign a content licensing deal with an AI company, but it did recently implement a new AI-powered on-site search engine.

Media Briefing: Overheard at the Digiday Publishing Summit, September 2025 Google search edition

Media execs aired their grievances about Google referral traffic and their souring relationship with platform during the Digiday Publishing Summit.

The lead image shows a football player taking a selfie.

How EssentiallySports’ creator program benefits both sides of the equation

Over the past year, sports news publication EssentiallySports has employed creators to make in-house video and editorial content around major tentpole sporting events — and thus far, the experiment has paid off.