PepsiCo India taps social media to hire millennials

How do you appeal to a growing generation of workforce that increasingly defies traditional norms and turns to internet for nearly all its needs? PepsiCo India recently went out of its way to find out.

PepsiCo India this month ended its 'Change the Game' campaign through which it aimed to tap on social media to crowdsource some ideas from millennials, get them engaged, and also identify people they would want to hire.

"Millennials are looking into their smartphones. They are interacting digitally, everything they do happens through this platform," Suchitra Rajendra, Vice President-HR, PepsiCo India told Mashable India.

The campaign, which lasted a little over two months, saw over 1,700 registrations through social media platforms. The first challenge as part of the campaign was to let people be creative with their selfies. Over 680 people were shortlisted.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

The second challenge, which encouraged people to design a product or service around health and nutrition areas, had a "reach" of more than 18 million people and 65 million "impressions" through social media, according to the company, Over 120 entries were shortlisted. The company says it will use some of these ideas in its products in 2020.

PepsiCo India announced the winners of the challenge on Nov. 11 after the final contestants were interviewed by a panel of influencers on Facebook and Twitter. A team from 'SCMHRD', which had an idea about nutritious snack for people always on the go, won the 'Change the Game' challenge.

Team 'Enliven' from Indian School of Business was the runner-up for its idea about creating a beauty-centered drink. "The drink should have the kind of constituents that serve as a beauty product," Rajendra added.

The third winner came up with the idea of hygienic food at roadside stalls. Some of the winners will work at PepsiCo, while others will partner, to turn their ideas into reality, and help the company with other major ideas.

Though major corporations tuning in to social media to attract audience isn't something new, it's yet to become common in India. That said, will the ideas that won the campaign ever materialize is something that remains to be seen.