Pepsi switches to football in its latest campaign

Pepsi has launched its big campaign for the summer. The campaign continues with last summer’s ‘change the game’ thought, but has switched sports from cricket to football.

The TVC created by JWT India is Pepsi’s first football related campaign in the country. The film shows Ranbir Kapoor walking around the streets along with his friend, who’s displaying his football skills. Every time he sees his friend perform a football skill Kapoor links it to cricket and how he could use the skill to become a cricketer. His friend doesn’t respond to any of his suggestions until they come across a Pepsi vending machine. Kapoor inserts money inside the machine, but the machine doesn’t  deliver the Pepsi. His footballer friend then performs a skill and heads the football onto the machine, which makes the machine release the Pepsi bottle.  His friend then starts drinking Pepsi and tells Kapoor to play football as it helps occasionally.

Commenting on their association with football, Deepika Warrier, executive director, marketing, PepsiCo Beverages, India said, “Pepsi has always taken the lead in celebrating newer and emerging youth platforms; from cricket to movies to music, the brand has successfully created memorable campaigns and experiences for Youngistaan.  Football is gaining immense popularity in India and being a true youth soul-mate, Pepsi is proud to be associated with the sport”.

Homi Battiwalla, category director, Colas, hydration and Mango based beverages, PepsiCo India, said, “There is no shift in our support for cricket. Pepsi as a brand strongly identifies with cricket in India and last year’s 'Change the Game' campaign cemented that association. We will continue to build on our association with cricket in future also, as we have a long term commitment to the sport. You will see a lot of excitement on cricket from brand Pepsi this year including IPL where we are the On Air associate sponsors, and one of the global sponsors of the ICC Twenty 20 World Cup in Sri Lanka this year. We believe that football is an emerging youth platform in India and with Pepsi being the youth soul mate, decided to focus on the sport along with cricket, movies and music. The new Football campaign continues the Change the Game campaign and brings alive the fun associated with football in true Pepsi style to further engage the youth."

Pepsi are also going on-ground with a soon to be launched seven a side football tournament. Commenting on the initiative Battiwalla added, "This campaign is our first initiative in the football space and there are a lot of exciting plans. We will talk about them as they come alive. We are finalising the details on our on-ground initiative and will make an announcement at an appropriate time."

Commenting on the new campaign, Saurabh Saksena, executive business director, JWT India, said, “Pepsi is all about youth and their passions, which is reflected in the choice of football as a platform to engage with our TG.  The new campaign retains the original irreverent and fun Pepsi style along with the new football energy and excitement.”

The TVC will be followed by a series of initiatives over the year.  The campaign will be supported by a 360-degree approach including outdoor, consumer engagement and social media programmes.

Credits:

Brand: Pepsi

Creative agency: JWT

Executive creative director:  Surjo Dutt

Senior copywriter: Romit Nair

Executive business director: Saurabh Saksena

Vice president and client services director: Kundan Joshee

Director:  Shujaat Saudagar

 Producer: Ashit Ghelani (Boot Polissh Films)

Music director: Clinton Cerejo

Media Planning: Mindshare