Pepsi Max has teamed up with three Premier League stars and two content partners for its latest UEFA Champions League ‘Super Fandom’ campaign as it leverages the start of the knock-out phase and sees the second year of the brand’s tournament activation dovetail with its global marketing big idea of rewarding those who live for the moment.
Throughout 2017, Pepsi’s global aim is to celebrate life’s ‘live for now moments’ and its new activation approach to the tournament is based on the idea that ‘there is no better live for now moment than the uninhibited moment of passion from a true football fan’.
With an increased priority on the brand’s zero calorie offerings, the new work kicks-off with a new spearhead Pepsi Max/Zero Sugar TV commercial called ‘We Know How Much It Means’ which the brand itself describes as a ‘SuperFan Anthem Film’
Posted on the Pepsi Max YouTube channel on 7 February, the spot aims to solidify the brand’s understanding of the game and its culture and the emotional journey that players and fans go through during games.
The centrepiece ad runs with its title as the endline ‘We Know How Much It Means’ and the hashtags #PepsiMAXMoment #PepsiMoment.
This ad’s theme is based around the idea that while football isn’t always easy, it is those pure moments of joy make it all worthwhile.
This concept and the hero TV spot are explored and supported by Manchester City stars Sergio Agüero and Vincent Kompany appearing alongside Arsenal’s Alexis Sánchez in a trio of digital and social videos featuring the individual players sharing their own ‘Pepsi Max moments’ – their happiest football-related memories.
The global campaign is running across 75 markets worldwide and spans content sharing partnerships with sports platforms Copa90 and Bleacher Report.
With the aim of celebrating fans’ passion, this content partnership strand will see more than 150 pieces of content – from fan-centric videos and SuperFan stories, to emoji predictions, Pepsi GIF reactions and key goal animations – created and distributed across Copa90 and Bleacher Report’s platforms (an always-on initiative aiming to own football-related mobile moments across Facebook, Instagram Stories, Snapchat, Team Stream and Twitter).
The brand claims this is a ‘first-of-its-kind partnership’ creating ‘unique online content’ with various fan creators around the world to generate a ‘truly authentic and fan-centric expression of football passion’.
These content pieces will roll out ahead of each Champions League match and will climax with a ticket giveaway (which will see real fans making pledges about just how far they are prepared to go to get a ticket for the UEFA Champions League Final).
The Pepsi campaign also includes various other supporting partnership initiatives – such as a meal-deal style tie-up with Pizza Hut promoting across the drinks’ giants social platforms.
Introducing the Champions Bundle. Get 2 large pizzas, any 1.5L @PepsiMaxUK & garlic bread for only £20! https://t.co/vN1N6YiT3k
— Pizza Hut DeliveryUK (@pizzahutdeliver) February 7, 2017
With TV work created by agency Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO and other elements of the sponsorship activation handled by sports and entertainment agency Fuse
As well as activation’s creative content, a so called ‘disruptive design program’ continues this live moment fan rally cry across packaging, out of home and in-store strands for the full Pepsi trademark of blue, black and silver offerings.
‘Throughout the year, Pepsi will celebrate a variety of moments – from the everyday good moments made great, to the truly epic like the UEFA Champions League Final,’ comments the president of the PepsiCo global beverage group Brad Jakeman.
‘Pepsi is one of the most iconic supporters and longstanding fans of the world’s beautiful game, and this year we’re taking our global football campaign from the pitch to the stands – celebrating and igniting the contagious passion that comes to life in the fans around us, showing the world how much it means to live and love the game.’
‘The result of this collaboration is a football format done differently,’ adds James Kirkham, head of Copa90. ‘Shots of content which hit you between the eyes, stopping an audience from mindless scrolling. Everything arresting and not a moment lost.’
Activative Comment:
The new creative phase ramps up the brand’s Champions League activation as the tournament gets to the thrilling knock-out stages and levels of fan excitement rise.
It also builds on last year’s debut Pepsi Champions League campaign called #GameReady.
One of the highlights of last year’s Pepsi Max Champions League activation was its ‘Volley 360’ immersive on-site experience for fans to test themselves against during the build up to the 2016 final (see case study).
PepsiMax’s sister brand Walkers also launched its Champions League campaign during the same week to leverage the start of the knock-out phase of the world’s leading club tournament (see case study).
It was back in 2015 that PepsiCo signed its deal to became a partner of the UEFA Champions League – gaining rights packages across six of the parent company’s portfolio brands.
The company is using the sponsorship to drive home its core strategic objective of ‘owning the social consumption moment’ in its competitive snacking and drinking sector.
In the first year of the deal more than 100 different markets leveraged the UEFA CL partnership assets across multiple channels – ensuring that it is now the company’s biggest truly global sponsorship.
UEFA Champions League tournament is the world’s mosty prestigious club competition and is the planet’s biggest annual sports event.
It reaches around 25% of all global TV viewers and its fans are split 50%/50% in and out of Europe.
Links:
PepsiMax
https://www.youtube.com/user/pepsimax
https://www.facebook.com/PepsiMax
https://twitter.com/PepsiMaxUK
PepsiCo
Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO
Fuse
UEFA Champions League
