Since the beginning of the year, Pepsi’s Refresh campaign has been soliciting ideas from people, businesses and non-profits to better the world and promote the Pepsi brand in a smart blend of social media marketing and philanthropy.

The beverage maker has set aside $1.3 million in grants to award to the people with the best ideas who get the most votes.

The next phase of Refresh brings a tie-in to the big fest going on down here in Austin.

Pepsi has invited the bands Broken Social Scene and Metric to participate in the first-ever Pepsi Refresh SXSW Challenge. By asking fans to vote, the bands will compete for a $100,000 grant to bring their ideas to action. Read the ideas and text in your vote at SPIN.com/pepsirefresh.

On a side note, we drank some Pepsi last night at the FlashFWD awards, sponsored by Pepsi and SoundCtrl.com. Our partner company, RockDex, was recognized as one of five digital music innovators, along with Hype Machine, Jingle Punks, Big Live and Indaba Music.