Adopting Channels in New Ways Is Driving PepsiCo’s Marketing Success

As the owner of brands such as Pepsi, Mountain Dew and Gatorade, PepsiCo’s core focus across its marketing is to tap into culture, demonstrate its relevance to consumers’ lives and engage them at their passion points.

“You cannot build brands the way we used to,” stated Mark Kirkham, senior vp and CMO of international beverages for PepsiCo, in reference to previous high-profile campaigns led by artists such as Michael Jackson and Beyonce. “Those are great, but that’s not how consumers interact with our brands today.”

Kirkham spoke at Social Media Week Europe about how the company chooses its brand partners to activate culturally through original marketing campaigns that are amplified using key digital avenues.

He cited three current marketing initiatives, including the work around the launch of EA’s FC 24, the soccer simulation game that replaces its long-running partnership with FIFA.

Pepsi Max and Pepsi Zero Sugar are two of the game’s brand sponsors. The beverage giant’s activation included the release of promotional packaging featuring international soccer stars Vini Jr., Leah Williamson and Son Heung-min. Vini Jr. also stars in the accompanying “Thirsty for More” above-the-line campaign that runs across digital and social media to show fans why the brand is the perfect partner to help quench their thirst.

Kirkham said this campaign was an example of an emerging form of marketing that, while still including a promotional film featuring a sports star ambassador, it also offers value back to consumers by allowing them to unlock in-game rewards using “ingrained currencies.”

Those rewards include one Ultimate Team 75+ rated untradeable gold item, enabling players to build formidable player line-ups within the new game. The promotional cans and bottles also provide access to other rewards, including Pepsi football kits, attractive stadium designs and tifos.

He revealed that the company had been working with EA for two years before the game’s rebranding and launch to develop the campaign’s rewards element.

“Within certain features of the game, you will literally be able to get a downloadable retro Pepsi shirt. You’ll be able to play with Lea Williamson, with Son [Heung-min] and in the near future, hopefully with some additional athletes as well,” he continued. So what we really want to do is bring all the pieces together and do it in a relevant way because there are a million people every day playing, and they [EA] are building a new brand, and they are looking for partners to help tell their story.

“But we want to do it in a way that is authentic to consumers, but also that’s authentic to our brand and intersections with the PR support that we’ve gotten around it. I think that’s the other thing. The comms and PR piece attached to any of these evacuations is critical. Traditional media values are important from a brand building and awareness standpoint, but if you look at the earned media that we’ve gotten from these last few programs, over a billion impressions, millions [of dollars] in earned value. And that’s something you need to think about—what’s the role of comms in terms of your social strategy?”

Kirkham cited other examples of how the brand aims to meet various other intersections within culture through its music collaborations, which recently included a digital concert with U.K. grime artist Stormzy and others from around Europe to promote Rockstar Energy.

That centered around a partnership with Spotify through its Stages platform. While the artist himself does not use social media channels, his fan base is still heavily behind him, leading to 200,000 people watching the resulting concert, with a total of 34 million engaging with the content and increasing business within the markets where the brand activated, he said.

The day of ‘I’ll stick you in an ad’ or ‘I’ll stick you on our packaging’—that just doesn’t work anymore.

Mark Kirkham, senior VP and CMO, International Beverages for PepsiCo

Rockstar Energy was able to drive relevance to music by leveraging Spotify’s platform and using promotions and varying levels of subscription access to form part of the relationship with consumers.

“We took a new platform, and we were engaging consumers in new ways, and that’s a good example of how you can still leverage celebrity and music and all the passion points that are relevant to the brand. But if you’re not doing it in new channels and new ways that actually still have a business impact, then you’re missing the opportunity,” he said.

Another initiative for Pepsi pays homage to the 50th anniversary of hip-hop as well as the legacy of Notorious B.I.G., which included the creation of graffiti murals across London featuring a likeness of the late artist who was murdered in March 1997.

The “One More Time” campaign began with three murals that were inspired by quotes from the artist’s family and some of his notable lyrics. Each mural focused on a unique element of his identity from his Jamaican heritage, his love of fashion and laid-back approach.

Kirkham explained the relevancy of the artist, who filmed a song about his love for Pepsi not long before his death, working with influencers to drive awareness and excitement, resulting in over a billion impressions already, with more content to be released in the coming weeks.

“The way you invest in partnerships is very different today, and we wanted to celebrate the 50th anniversary in a way that was both relevant to our brand but also one that could almost pay homage to ‘Biggie,’” he said. “We worked with his estate to actually tell the narrative.”

He added that this was an example of how Pepsi has developed its marketing to celebrate cultural icons and parts of the company.

“The day of ‘I’ll stick you in an ad’ or ‘I’ll stick you on our packaging’—that just doesn’t work anymore. You have to find their unique voice,” Kirkham’s advice when partnering with celebrities authentically when planning a major modern campaign today.

He also revealed that metric tracking is handled internally by PepsiCo to look at first and third-party data while measuring and targeting stores through geo-targeting and return on sales.

“This concept of personalization at scale and really getting your message and your medium in the right place at the right time and on the right channel is what’s allowing most brands to be a lot smarter to target messages,” he added.