Background

Pepsi is known for partnering with top music stars to bolster its image and appeal to young, trendy consumers. However, in 2020, COVID19 had placed severe limitations on large physical concerts, leading to gaming and virtual idols replacing live music as the top past time for China’s youth. In fact, virtual idols in China are today treated just like real celebrities, with fanbases in excess of 10M followers. China’s esports game community is the largest in the world, with over 400M fans. During COVID-19, eSports games’ popularity only increased, with an 83% year-on-year increase in the number of hours being played (Source: Streamlab report 2020), and a 20% annual increase in its sales, thanks to the extra time for gaming provided by lockdowns. However, Pepsi had yet to successfully break into this community.