Results and Effectiveness

- The emotional gap between millennials and Pepsi reduced significantly amongst those who were exposed to this event. (81% increase in “Brand I Love” score) - Over 1200 teams registered for the event amounting to 7000 footballers across India. We could unfortunately accommodate only 448 teams. - Over 7 millionn millennials were exposed to the event via media amplifications. - A packed stadium of 7000 spectators engaged with the brand for over 8 hours during the grand-finale. - The #PepsiFootyFinale trended on twitter at #1 in India on the day of the event. - PR worth USD 6.5mn was generated.

Creative Execution

Pepsi-T20-Football, a mega football league was initiated at a grass rout level, a revolutionary new format which combines the speed and thrill of football with the most exciting format of cricket–T20, mounted at a never before scale in India. 448 teams battled each other inside a metallic cage in 7-a-side, 20-minute action packed matches. The wining team was coached by none other than Didier Drogba. Led by Bollywood actor Ranbir Kapoor they played the Pepsi-T20-Football grand-finale with the Indian national cricket team which was led by the Indian captain MS Dhoni, coached by Indian football legend Bhaichung Bhutia. The grand-finale held on 17th-June’2012 at Thyagraj Stadium New-Delhi, was packed to its capacity of 7000, as fans came in droves to catch a glimpse of the Chelsea legend, Bollywood-Star Ranbir Kapoor and top Indian cricketers. The partnership with ESPN helped drive mass coverage and on-air amplification reaching the entire nation.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

The emotional distance between millennials & Pepsi was steadily growing. Cricket is a religion and Pepsi enjoys an unassailable association with the game. Cricket has retained its relevance by re-inventing itself via shorter, more exciting format (T20), which is extremely popular with Indian youth. Over years, levels of clutter around cricket have grown exponentially making it difficult for Pepsi to craft stories of ‘irreverence’, key territory for the brand. ‘Irreverence’ had to be won to forge stronger emotional connect. Under the shadow of this mass religion, football has quietly been gaining currency amongst millennials. What if we could use the religious fanaticism for cricket to drive mass conversion of millennials to football? Thus was born Pepsi-T20-Football, which used codes of cricket to ambush cricket. Cricket stars & cricket language were integrated into Pepsi-T20-Football, to broaden its appeal beyond just the football passionate millennials and to provide an aura of irreverence.