Pepsi’s Pre-Game At-Home Experience Offers Fans A Taste Of New LA Rams & LA Chargers SoFi Stadium

As part of its umbrella ‘Made For Watching Football’ NFL kickoff activation, Pepsi brought Los Angeles football fans some virtual gameday action with a 13 September season opener experience of the new SoFi Stadium….at home.

Pepsi, the official soft drink of SoFi Stadium and Hollywood Park, hosted entertainment, food, kit and fan-based activations with the aim of empowering them to showcase their love of the game and share it with their friends and family across social channels.

The aim was to give Rams and Chargers fans the ultimate at-home experience celebrating their teams’ new stadium.

The programme started with the Rams first game against the Dallas Cowboys and included an exclusive, virtual pregame concert with award-winning rapper Jay Rock airing live on its YouTube channel for 24 hours.

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Pepsi x @jayrock are bringing the energy pregame. Link in bio to watch 9/13.

A post shared by Los Angeles Rams (@rams) on Sep 9, 2020 at 12:03pm PDT

As well as the gig, Pepsi provided free gameday food and drink, limited edition team merchandise, plus fan filters enabled supporters at home to ‘get their game face on’ with access to an augmented reality filter that virtually painted team colours onto an image of their face which can then be shared across social channels.

The cola giant will extend the local fan programme through the Los Angeles Chargers season opener on 20 September when Pepsi will host a virtual tailgate featuring gameday eats, merchandise and matching Chargers fan filters.

As part of the activation, Pepsi will provide 1000 fans access to an exclusive $20 Pizza Hut digital gift card where they can redeem a free pizza and two-liter Pepsi to enjoy during the game.

Pepsi is also collaborating with legendary Chargers defensive lineman Jackboyz and Los Angeles-based artist Francisco Reyes Jr on designing a limited edition, custom t-shirt. Fans will be able to enter a giveaway on Instagram and Twitter for a chance to win one of 100 custom shirts.

“As one of the most anticipated venues in the country, SoFi Stadium represents an unparalleled entertainment destination, right in our own backyard,” said pepsi beverages North America West President Johannes Evenblij. “We are proud to continue to deepen our LA roots and celebrate the stadium and its teams in LA with the most epic gameday experiences that only Pepsi can produce.”

“As we kick off a historic year for the Rams and SoFi Stadium, we are excited to work with Pepsi to connect with our fans wherever they are celebrating the start of the season,” added Rams COO Kevin Demoff. “Pepsi will help us open SoFi Stadium with its first “pregame show,” featuring LA-native Jay Rock taking fans on a journey through this unparalleled stadium that Stan Kroenke has built in Inglewood. We look forward to working with Pepsi to showcase the Rams House virtually until we can all be together there in person.”

“One constant in our partnership with PepsiCo over the past two decades is the shared view that the fan always comes first, and this activation is yet another tremendous example of that,” said Chargers Business Operations President AG Spanos. “While this pandemic has disrupted so many things in our day-to-day lives, we are thrilled to offer Chargers fans a sense of normalcy with PepsiCo’s virtual SoFi stadium experience. Thanks to PepsiCo, fans can still enjoy that gameday experience from home and experience the special sense of community that is unique to NFL Sundays in the Fall.”

Outcome:

The virtual, pregame show notched up 22,473 views in its first 12 hours on pepsi’s YouTube channel.

Comment:

These two-team kickoff activations seek to further align Pepsi with the NFL and its two LA teams, as well as connecting the brand through its new SoFi Stadium tie-up where it holds sponsorship, soft drink and snacking rights for Rams and Chargers games.

The Rams also won the season opener.

Goodnight from @SoFiStadium!

It’s good to be home. #RamsHouse pic.twitter.com/xE218p75PH

— Los Angeles Rams (@RamsNFL) September 14, 2020

As a founding Hollywood Park partner, PepsiCo also holds category-exclusive marketing, sponsorship and promotional rights across the wider development spanning SoFi Stadium, the performance venue and American Airlines Plaza.

“PepsiCo is known for delivering the ultimate fan experience,” said SoFo Stadium MD Jason Gannon. “As we get our inaugural NFL season underway, we will introduce fans to SoFi Stadium and the extraordinary experiences they can engage with from the comforts of their home. We’re excited to kick things off with Pepsi’s first pregame show at SoFi Stadium with Grammy Award-winner Jay Rock and look forward to the day when we can welcome fans in-person.”

Pepsi’s Rams/Chargers work links to its wider, multi-channel, multi-phase ‘Made for Football Watching’ NFL kickoff marketing programme which is being brought to life through TV advertisements (see case study), an online hub to host content, short films and fan surprises (see case study), a ‘Tailgate In A Box’ sweepstakes (see case study) as well as a suite of social filters designed to help immortalize the football watcher.

It’s not quite how anyone would have wanted to open a new arena or activate a first home game, but it’s the reality NFL partners like Pepsi and team/stadium sponsors like SoFi have to work with at the moment.

Links:

Pepsi

https://pepsi.com

https://www.facebook.com/pepsi/

https://www.youtube.com/c/Pepsi

https://twitter.com/Pepsi

https://www.instagram.com/Pepsi/

LA Rams

https://www.therams.com/

https://www.instagram.com/rams

https://twitter.com/VamosRams

https://www.youtube.com/c/LARams