The ‘Pepsi 18 Week Pack’ is the grand prize in the longtime NFL sponsor’s new season sweepstakes sitting at the heart of the league’s official soft drink’s football-focused ‘Better With Pepsi’ activation programme.
Launched on 7 September, 24 hours ahead of the start of the 2022/3 season, the ‘Pepsi 18 Week Pack’ – named after the 18-week regular-season schedule – is a football fan’s dream mobile trailer ‘fan cave’ outfitted with brand- and team-themed décor, stadium-style seating on a turf carpet, a 55-inch ‘Pepsi Gametime Fridge TV’ (with a built-in mini-fridge for storing and retrieving drinks without interrupting watch time), a piece of furniture dubbed a ‘hottoman’ (which doubles as a food-warming tray), plus a washing machine, bathroom and Murphy bed, as well as a season-long supply of Pepsi Zero Sugar.
The sweepstakes and its grand prize was promoted from 7 September through a digital spot starring recently retired Super Bowl champion Andrew Whitworth who takes viewers on a tour of the branded football-watching space in the style of MTV’s famous ‘Cribs’ show.
The spot claims “Football found its home. Introducing the #Pepsi18WeekPack, a Pepsi pack you can live in all football season long. Join LA Rams Super Bowl LVI champion Andrew Whitworth on a tour through the first tiny home created exclusively for football watching” and aims to drive viewers online to visit bit.ly/Pepsi18WeekPack to learn more about how to enter for the chance to win.
Football found its home.
Introducing the #Pepsi18WeekPack, a Pepsi pack you can live in all football season long.
Join @ramsNFL Super Bowl LVI champion @AndrewWhitworth on a tour through the first tiny home created exclusively for football watching. pic.twitter.com/zrn5KsBsfC
— Pepsi (@pepsi) September 7, 2022
Wanna be the proud owner? This is how you can enter for a chance to win #Pepsi18WeekPack #MadeForFootballWatching @Instacart https://t.co/YaFQyTzk8A pic.twitter.com/fG4Cpjz24P
— Pepsi (@pepsi) September 7, 2022
“We know there’s a big trend of binge-watching the NFL throughout the day. You think of [NFL] RedZone and people just spending eight straight hours in a chair watching,” outlined Pepsi CMO Todd Kaplan. “You think of just how much people are living in these fan-cave experiences.”
Run through grocery-delivery site Instacart, which is fast becoming a key e-commerce partner for PepsiCo as it has rapidly built out advertising tools to chase bigger CPG media budgets, the initiative offers Instacart users who buy two 12-packs of Pepsi and who save their receipt an chance to enter to receive an SMS message related to the contest which also offers additional prizes such as a yearlong subscription to Instacart and a $100 weekly gift card for picking up more Pepsi.
”Instacart is one of our great e-commerce partners that can fulfill your instant craving for a beverage on game day,” added Kaplan. “We’re going to obviously have it very focused and featured on Instacart.”
As well as the sweepstakes, Pepsi’s new season kickoff activation programme also includes a pair of new national TV spots promoting Pepsi Zero Sugar and addressing different fan occasions: but both focusing on how Pepsi pairs better with food (part of the brand’s ‘Better With Pepsi’ project).
One spot sees a fan grilling at an outdoor football tailgate and burning his burgers because he’s so distracted by the taste of Pepsi. While the other sees a Pepsi drinker block the TV screen during a key play in a similar state of silent rapture over the beverage.
The commercials position the product as a ‘better-for-you’ offering and sees Pepsi primarily target men in their 30s and 40s.
“Zero sugar is one of the biggest growth categories in cola today and is a really critical strategic importance area for us as we move forward with the brand,” explained Kaplan. “You’re going to see us continue to put that brand at the forefront throughout our NFL and even other activations across the board.”
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This initiative shows that Pepsi has recognized the current binge-watching trend has reached the NFL as the league steps further into the world of streaming through its own NFL+ service and as Amazon takes over its coveted ‘Thursday Night Football’ rights.
Thematically, this activation sees Pepsi continue to push a message of ‘unapologetic enjoyment’ where consumers are encouraged to feel free to indulge themselves without fear of judgment.
This new season activation follows on from PepsiCo’s recent resigning of its NFL sponsorship for another 10 years: extending a partnership that stretches back four decades, but which sees an adjusted sponsorship playbook after giving up its title rights to the Super Bowl Halftime Show which it has held since 2012.
“Pepsi’s decision to leave the Halftime Show was really our first move in a much larger strategic shift to bring these new unprecedented music and entertainment experiences to our fans where they are now and where we know they’re going to be in the future,” added Kaplan.
Yet this initiative continues the trend for Pepsi’s football marketing to gravitate towards the fans’ everyday experience of football watching (something that accelerated through Covid-19).
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