Marketing Case study India

Subscribe

Advertise your job ad
    Search jobs

    Pepsi T20 Football Campaign on the ball

    NEW DELHI, INDIA: If there's one thing that unites Indians, it's a religion called cricket. Also 'Pepsi & Cricket' was expected. But...

    The 'Change the game' philosophy started on a cricket platform, so it was time to take this beyond cricket, time to find something new that would capture the imagination of all. Football sub-culture was quietly gaining momentum and this was an opportunity to push Pepsi's irreverence beyond the edge: "Why not do the blasphemous? Why not push Cricket further? Why not mash it up with football?" And so the opportunity arose to create Pepsi T20 Football: a new format to engage the youth in the idea.

    Challenge

    Pepsi T20 Football Campaign on the ball

    Pepsi's iconic youth stature was under threat due to multiple brands vying for youths' attention. Today fashion, automobile, beverage, mobile brands & many others are fighting for youths' share of mind, heart and wallet. Above all, technology is the new 'shiny' for the young and the glamour of Cola is a thing of the past.

    Equity Research revealed concerns on Youth Scores. Pepsi was:

    1. Not talking to 'youth as a tribe' but instead more universal & indiscriminate.

    2. Moving from 'young & irreverent' to 'kiddish and frivolous'

    In today's world, where youths' attention span is becoming a challenge for marketers, the plan was aimed at keeping the consumers engaged throughout the entire campaign, not only in India but across the globe.

    And so, Pepsi developed an interactive campaign to build Awareness for the T20 Football format - Engagement through contests & updates and Fulfilment through participation in a Grand Finale to meet their Cricket & Football Idols.

    Strategy

    When you challenge a religion, resistance is inevitable. So you don't take it head on, first you plant an idea. You seed it. Then you convert. For the youth, especially the football loving population, the internet is their second home - the onus was on digital media to make conversions for football happen. A football sub-culture was quietly gaining momentum ("Football is a 'cool' sport to follow, it shows you are tuned in globally").

    The strategy was to bring the idea to life in three crucial steps:

    Step 1: SEED - Plant the sacrilegious thought

    Step 2: SCALE - Show them the excitement of a new God (football)

    Step 3: SPREAD - Invite them to practice, talk about, and share the new religion

    The buzz started with a video on Facebook &YouTube when a Pepsi truck let loose hundreds of footballs on a Mumbai Cricket Ground and hijacked Cricket as unsuspecting teenagers abandoned cricket for a game of football.

    Pepsi T20 Football Campaign on the ball

    A 60-second ad launched online and later on TV: The Expected Way - Launch a new sport platform through TV by cashing in on its iconic stars. The Pepsi Way - Start the discussion with an online ad first. Don't Preach, capture imagination with non-sport, Bollywood youth icon Ranbir ('a cricket enthusiast') who gets infected with the idea of "Giving football a try".

    Plant the Football Manifesto on Facebook to start a discussion and get a debate going "Why not give Football a try?" through teasers, pictures, events & chats, as well as exciting contests & games like "Score A Pepsi" & "Shout Out Goal (uses the microphone)". On Twitter, the plan was to generate conversations around football /footy stars/football in India and Indian football stars to create trending topics like #IfIWereAFootyStar& #Footballis.

    Execution

    'Pepsi T20 football' - the brand's biggest online-offline integration: Awareness and build up via City Finals coverage, wild card entry contest and grand finale. Fans on social media got "MaukePeChauka Moment" (which translates to "Chance to make it count") - a wildcard entry contest which allowed competing with the national finalists. This contest also spread online through Pepsi's website, Facebook, Twitter, mobile & e-mailers. Online apps for Meet & Greet contests were set to interact with celebs present on-ground. Local bloggers and Twitteratis for the city finals to cover live action & interview both fans & celebs, tweeted & micro-blogged from the venue.

    The Grand Finale had the God of Football, Drogba, walk amongst the mortals. More than 100 bloggers/twitterati to generate thousands of live conversations, contests like "Pepsi Full House" & "Quiz Ball" gave the chance to be at the Grand Finale and engaging apps like "Head it to Drogba" (a desktop/laptop cam enabled game).

    Pepsi Livewire: Mobile phone cameras were used to live stream the event for the digital audience. Five quirky characters (Daring Diana, Delhi Bwoy, Bakbaki Betty, Mr. Bhukkad, Serial Stalker) were introduced through web videos before the mega event. Spectators engaged with them and live feeds were sent to the users' Facebook accounts. This was integrated with Twitter, microsites, and other social media too. A mobile application, 'Pepsi World' was developed to showcase the latest events in the world of Pepsi - it incorporated Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

    Results

    Pepsi Live Wire led to:

    • 52,000+ viewing hours
    • Over 1.28 lakhs viewers witnessing the campaign
    • 18,000 viewers logged in every hour for 7.5 hours of live viewing
    • Respective platforms received the following:
    • Facebook - 2.5 million engaged users; 150+ million reach; 560 million impressions & 1 million new fans
    • Twitter - 10,000 tweets; 1.6+ million reach; 8 million impressions; double the growth in followers; 6 national and 1 global trend
    • You Tube - 1 million video views; three times the subscriber base
    • Overall reach: 153 million that garnered 569+ million impressions

    Source: Cream: Inspiring Innovation

    Cream is a curated, global case study gallery of excellence, providing the marketing community with the latest trends and inspiration to help grow their business.

    Go to: http://www.creamglobal.com
    Let's do Biz