Leveraging its NFL partnership rights ahead of Super Bowl 56, food and drink giant PepsiCo rolled out an integrated campaign called ‘Road To Super Bowl LVI’ promoting a range of its soda and snack brands and staring a team of former NFL star athlete ambassadors.
Fronted by former quarterbacks Peyton and Eli Manning, as well as former Pittsburgh Steelers star running back Jerome Bettis and legendary quarterback Terry Bradshaw and New York Giants wide receiver Victor Cruz, the light-hearted lead spot is set to Olivia Rodrigo’s ‘Good 4 U’ and sees the legends head off on a road trip to the Super Bowl in ramshackle school bus.
The endorser team, who boast 10 Super Bowl rings between them, drive a rickety bus fuelled with the energy of the ‘Manningcast’ in a multi-brand campaign promoting a range of PepsiCo’s snack and drink brands including Bubly, Doritos, Lay’s, Mountain Dew, Pepsi and Tostitos.
The ‘Road’ campaign sets out to build excitement ahead of the Big Game and encourage viewers to stock up ahead of the Super Bowl.
The initial wave of work, produced by the PepsiCo’s in-house agency, spans a set of four 30-second ad variations and several shorter spots broadcast during the NFL playoffs on television and online.
Led by a Playoff promoting launch spot on 13 January which starts with the Mannings bickering on a couch while watching football and calling out to their work as co-hosts of an alternate ‘Monday Night Football’ broadcast known as the ‘Manningcast’ which ran this season on ESPN2.
As well as driving pre Big Game consumer sales, an additional strand of the campaign aims to ‘win brand love and shelf space from its retail partners’ via a variety of items will have special NFL-themed packaging and displays through mid-February.
An additional mobile phase offers consumers a chance to scan or purchase one of the specially-marked products and enter a code in order to be in with a chance to win NFL gear to further help them get ready for Super Bowl Sunday.
Pepsi’s mobile app also gives football fans multiple chances to win other NFL linked giveaways such as Halftime Show sideline passes, plus limited edition items and also to unlock new and exclusive content.
“We wanted to start the playoff season in a joyful, celebratory way, so we’re featuring legendary players and iconic brands all in one fun-filled campaign,” said Senior VP and Chief Marketing Officer Frito-Lay North America Rachel Ferdinando. “From the start of the road trip to the pit stops along the way, the journey is fueled by the best in snacks and beverages—game-day favorites that only PepsiCo can deliver.”
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PepsiCo is a longtime official NFL sponsor and is a major in-game advertiser as well as being the title sponsor of its Halftime Show and its huge partnership investment inevitably means running long ‘lead-in’ and ‘tail’ activations around all of the league’s significant tentpoles.
Indeed, for food brands, Playoff and Super Bowl ads can be as much about targeting up retailers and distributors as they are about direct consumer engagement and this kind of integrated campaign tactic of including digital plays is also a common way for brands to collect first-party consumer data that can be used to retarget them in other marketing.
This parent company snacks and soda range campaign runs in parallel to specific Super Bowl linked brand marketing initiatives such as ‘Lay’s Golden Grounds‘.
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