Pepsi Pulls Out all the Stops to Engage Young People with Packaging
In a bold marketing move, Pepsi is rotating its packaging—with a huge play on interactivity—on a regular basis to keep up interest for its core audience, teens and young adults.
The packaging is no longer just a can or cup that holds soda pop and maybe features a promotion or two once in a while. The graphics alone, featured on more than 8 billion Pepsi-Cola cans, bottles and cups throughout the world, will feature sports, music, fashion and cars, rotating in 35 new looks this year alone. In addition to the graphics, content will also include Web addresses that lead to exclusive online content, games, contest and sweepstakes.
“On the surface, this might look like a packaging update, but it’s much more than that,” said Cie Nicholson, senior vice president and CMO of Pepsi-Cola North America, in a statement. “We’re changing the way we interact with consumers—and now we’re doing it on their terms. When people pick up a Pepsi, they’ll be getting much more than a great tasting cola. They’ll be getting a passport to the things they enjoy most.”
Pepsi announced last year that it would debut rotating graphics on Pepsi cans, but the company has now offered further details.
The new campaign will span the world and include TV, radio, print and online messaging.
In the U.S. the first new can will be titled “Your Pepsi” and will link to a site where consumers can design a Pepsi billboard ad, which will appear in Times Square in New York City in April. Or they can design a paint scheme for NASCAR driver Jeff Gordon’s car that will race later this year.
In international markets, designs will link to sites where consumers can create music and videos to share with others.
Last Thursday, Pepsi unveiled a watch-and-win contest offering a jewel-encrusted Pepsi can and other prizes to its already lucrative National Football League Sponsorship.
Viewers watching the Super Bowl XLI on Feb. 4 will get the chance to win the Super Bowl Edition Pepsi can, made of sterling silver and inlaid with diamonds, rubies and sapphires. The can is estimated to be worth $100,000. (PROMO Xtra, Jan. 12, 2007)
