• by Nina Lentini  @Nina_Lentini, April 5, 2007

Feeding into young consumers' desire to discover and personalize, Pepsi is offering all consumers a chance to design a can and win 10 grand.

It's all part of the beverage giant's 2007 initiative to make its product new and exciting by changing the design 35 times throughout the year, letting consumers design a billboard for the company, which is up in New York's Times Square, and now offering its can as blank canvas.

The winning design will appear on 500 million Pepsi cans in national distribution, the company says. Beginning this week, consumers can access the "Design Our Pepsi Can" promotion at, uh, designourpepsican.com. Would-be artists can use tools that are available online or their own design programs. The top designs, determined by an in-house panel, will be posted at the site, where consumers will vote for the winner.

"We did an extensive global youth trends study, and the key findings were that young people embrace change, they're constantly exploring and they're into personalization," says a Pepsi spokesperson. "We believe the best way to connect with them is to offer a world of online discovery through our ever-changing packaging. The Pepsi package designs feature unique Web addresses that take consumers to exclusive online content, games, contests and sweepstakes."

In upcoming months, consumers can expect to see three special cans designed by musicians The All-American Rejects, Big & Rich and Pharrell Williams. These cans will feature Web site addresses that will take fans to exclusive footage of the artists and offer information on their new projects.

On a related note, Pepsi's "Free Ride" promotion comes to an end. Customers in more than 100 Associated Food Stores have had an opportunity to enter for a chance to draw the winning key and drive home a new Subaru Impreza WRX along with $10,000 to trick it out.

Today, at 1 p.m. in a store in Utah, five semi-finalists will get to pick from five keys, one of which will start the car. It is the second year for the Pepsi promo, a spokesperson says, and is operated in conjunction with bottler Admiral Beverage Corp.