Re-igniting Pepsi Love
Pepsi's equity was growing, but not growing fast enough. The category was facing various headwinds. It's biggest competitor was accelerating investment across marketing, design and content. And the marketing landscape had radically changed.
The strategy: Get the world to fall back in love with the brand, and with cola.
A 3 pronged approach:
1. Unleash the brand
2. Reinvent global marketing
3. Make the product more relevant
1. Unleashing the brand
Launched an evergreen manifesto campaign based on the trademark that deepened the brand's POV and provided a north star for other comms.
2. Reinventing global marketing
FROM:
TV-centric campaigns aimed primarily at the masses
TO:
An idea-centric stream of news across tentpole events, digital content and partnerships from class to mass.
The new approach launched globally with Pepsi Football and PepsiMoji:
A case study in innovation: Pepsi Football
Six of the world’s greatest footballers.
Six of the hottest street artists.
One iconic photographer.
A campaign like no other.
An iconic photographer and street artists from around the world came together to create large scales works of art with Pepsi’s footballers at the center. The art came to life across content, fashion and outdoor.
First ever fashion collection in partnership with colette, Liberty of London, Bloomingdales
Extended the art to fashion to launch a 60 piece collection in 750 stores around the world. With more than $510k in revenue, retailers re-stocking, 4 American Design Awards and numerous global press accolades such as Vogue attributing fashion cred to the collection, the capsule was a huge success.
Art as Billboard
The art was also leveraged for packaging, instore, and out-of-home in iconic locations, including one of the largest outdoor billboards in the world in Dubai.
Content and TV conceived as one
Created a first of its kind interactive film that brought Pepsi's entire World Cup campaign together. Viewers could ultimately unlock ten minutes of content which featured the different elements of the campaign – from the “making of” art films to the BTS of the TV spot and the collection. The film broke engagement records on Youtube and the TV spot, derived from the film, beat out Coke and Nike's World Cup spots.
Infusing Pepsi into culture with a fresh take on emojis: Say It With Pepsi
After taking over 1 billion bottles and cans, Pepsimojis exploded out of the store and into the real world, igniting culture along the way and sparking the brand at every level:
Collaboration with Jeremy Scott: Enabled consumers to see the world through PepsiMoji-colored glasses via a fashion collaboration with designer Jeremy Scott.
Street Photography: Recruited photographer Ben Watts and Instagram influencer Daniel Arnold to capture Pepsimojis as interlopers in the real world, providing a wry commentary on emoji culture that was launched in outdoor and social.
Always on content at every level:
Hero: The debut of Pepsimojis on World Emoji Day
Hygiene: Tentpole stories about the origin of Pepsimojis
Hub: 50 pieces of bite-sized content that celebrated global cultural moments and holidays
Rounded out with traditional television for broadcast and digital
3. Make the product more relevant
De-commoditizing the category
Similar to the way Starbucks re-launched coffee in the 90s by creating destinations and ritual, created a new culture around cola to inspire GenY to re-appraise soda and reset the conversation around the category. Launched Caleb's Kola, a new band rooted in authenticity, heritage, transparency, discovery and self-expression:
A cola that was made, not manufactured.
Storytelling and unique experiences over functional messaging
Targeted distribution in lifestyle-driven venues
Digital and content at the forefront
Creating the kind of thing consumers wanted to be seen with and would pay more for, Caleb’s will soon expand to Australia, Korea, Japan, Mexico, Canada and beyond.
Maintaining the core
To retain Gen X consumers that liked cola but wanted more natural beverages, created Pepsi True, a new brand that made cola fun and carefree again. The new brand claimed a spot on the top 5 selling North American beverage SKUs and comprised 38% of PepsiCo CSD sales on Amazon during launch.
