• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, August 31, 2010

Not surprisingly, it's coming from Pepsi Refresh. That's what Social Media Insider Summit opening keynoter Shiv Singh said this morning. Singh, who is director of digital at PepsiCo, and one of the main guys behind the Pepsi Refresh social media campaign, said he's found that it is turning the economics of media "upside down."

"We get more traffic to refresh.com than to sites for which I buy media," Singh said, adding, "Think about it, all of a sudden my company's Web site is a more valuable property than some of the companies I buy display ad space from."

That point did not escape the attention of Social Vibe Founder and Online Spin Board columnist Joe Marchese, who asked Singh how much money Pepsi spent on media to drive awareness and traffic to refresh.com that, in turn, made it such a formidable and valuable media property.

"Unfortunately, I can't share those numbers publicly," Singh said, adding, "It's actually very, very small compared to the money given away. And compared to the money needed to build this."

That said, Singh acknowledged the role of paid media, especially the offline kind.

"When this started out, we needed to build awareness for this. And when we started out, we knew that TV still builds awareness," concluded.

Economics Flipper Shiv Singh