NEW YORK -- Pepsi is taking an unconventional approach to marketing Tava, its new, no-calorie beverage.

The marketing effort is another sign of the growing use of new media to introduce brands in mainstream categories like packaged goods. Such shifts in media-planning habits by companies like Pepsi are the reason that spending for ads online is increasing far faster than for any other medium, The New York Times reports.

Pepsi is bringing out a line of no-calorie, fruit-flavored and caffeine-free carbonated beverages named Tava with a campaign that is bypassing mainstay media like television and print.

Instead, Tava is getting a spirited send-off with its own Web site (tava.com), banner ads, promotions and offbeat stunts like sampling events at popular shops and the delivery of free samples to the employees of prominent companies like Google and MTV.

The marketing campaign is zeroing in on eight major markets where consumers seem to appreciate soft drinks that contain vitamins and bear new-age flavor names like Brazilian Samba, Mediterranean Fiesta and Tahitian Tamure. They are Boston, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Seattle and Raleigh, N.C.