“If you think about how many fans UEFA has, and you think about how many fans we have, and you bring those two together—for UEFA it’s a great opportunity to expand audiences, and for PepsiCo it’s about being able to go deeper and actually tell different stories,” he said.
PepsiCo will continue digital and social activations for its sustainability and regenerative farming initiative PepsiCo Positive (pep+). Reusable cups and returnable bottles will be introduced at games, and influencers will educate fans on recycling.
Market expansion will be another key element, especially as the European competition will grow to include another four teams (totaling 36) in the 2024-25 season. Audiences in the U.S., Africa and Middle East are seen as “a huge opportunity” for UCL.
In the U.S., PepsiCo and UEFA’s grassroots soccer program, Team of Champions, is meant to create transformational change for Hispanic and Black youth, as well as bring more women into the sport. It is funded through a $1 million commitment.
Analyzing the partnership
According to sport data research company Horizm, which reviewed the UCL’s associated brands, Pepsi commanded the highest engagement rate of all partners with 9.24%, followed by Adidas at 8.63%. Pepsi would also generate a digital value of 273,000 euros, in comparison to sister brand Lay’s which generated 230,000 euros, despite the latter posting more times through its owned social media.
“Despite PepsiCo (Pepsi and Lay’s) not activating the most compared to other partners such as PlayStation and FedEx, their dominance in engagement has ultimately proved effective in terms of generating value from the partnership,” said Luis Viveiros, chief operating officer for Horizm. “This is highlighted by PlayStation, who despite activating on 200+ occasions more than PepsiCo only saw an engagement rate of 5.27%, compared to Pepsi’s 9.24% and Lay’s 5.93%.”
Meanwhile, research from Brandwatch for Adweek discovered that out of 12.6 million social media mentions of “Pepsi” since Jan. 1, 2020, there were 34,000 that also contained Champions League or UEFA. That is 1 in every 362.1 messages about Pepsi focused on this sports sponsorship.