| Title | BRINGING BACK THE PEPSI TASTE CHALLENGE FOR A DISTRACTED GENERATION |
| Brand | PEPSICO |
| Product / Service | PEPSI NEXT |
| Category | B02. Consumer Products |
| Entrant | PHD Sydney, AUSTRALIA |
| Media Agency 2 | PHD Sydney, AUSTRALIA |
| Entrant Company | PHD Sydney, AUSTRALIA |
| Media Agency | PHD Sydney, AUSTRALIA |
| Name | Company | Position |
|---|---|---|
| Graham Alvarez | Clemenger Creative | |
| Penny Warneford | Tango Communications | |
| Darren Reed | Phd | Implementation Planning Manager |
| Stewart Gurney | Phd | Strategy Director |
| Emma Kay | Phd | Implementation Planning Director |
| Amy Francis | Phd | Business Director |
We didn’t just launch a brand- we created a new Cola category. The soft drinks category grew by 6.2%. This hadn't happened in nearly a decade. Because of Pepsi Next people were actually coming back to the fizzy drinks category. Furthermore nearly 80% of our volume came from competitor brands or non-category users, meaning we weren't cannibalising from within our own Pepsi portfolio. “The launch of Pepsi Next was one of the most successful launches we've undertaken. The clever use of the Pepsi Taste challenge was key to this success.” Kim McConnie Marketing Director PepsiCo (Source: MWB, Nielsen Homescan)
To access the right music talent and reach our youth audience we partnered with one of Australia’s leading music stations, Channel V. We secured ‘The Veronicas’ to launch our Taste Challenge. Using owned channels to generate awareness and earned social media to activate their fan base. When our challenge bus stopped in Melbourne we were met with hundreds of youths- all ready to waiting to see the band perform on our bus and more importantly take the taste challenge. Along with DJs and artists that performed across the 15 week campaign, our biggest win was securing electro-band ‘The Presets’. A bespoke promotion promised winners an exclusive gig whilst encouraging people to take the challenge. To amplify further, Channel V produced 90” branded mash up trail that run across the channel. TV and VOD were also used to create awareness while small-format outdoor created disruption in proximity to store.
Pepsi Next isn’t a ‘full sugar’ Cola or a ‘light Cola’. It’s sweetened naturally and has 30% less sugar than regular Pepsi. Therefore to launch Pepsi Next in Australia we had to create a whole new cola category. The difference between the cola categories is taste. A ‘full sugar’ cola has a better taste, whereas a ‘light cola’ tends to taste more artificial. This ingrained ‘taste compromise’ was a huge cultural barrier we had to overcome. Fortunately, PepsiCo has a tried and tested marketing device to combat these ingrained associations: The Pepsi Taste Challenge. We needed to make the Taste challenge more relevant for our cynical youth audience. Our researched revealed that music was key. Music-centered experiences are moments of positivity and when people are more positive they are open to trying new things. We wanted to turn the Pepsi Taste Challenge into lots of real world music experiences.