Pepsi Next Gives Consumers an Online 'Taste'

Purchase, N.Y. — The bottlers who helped develop distribution plans for PepsiCo's new low-sugar cola brand, Pepsi Next, provided the inspiration for the brand's "Drink It to Believe It" shopper marketing campaign, according to Andrea Seek, Pepsi marketing director. "They were really amazed at the taste and said, 'Wow, you have to drink it to believe it.' That started the notion of this unbelievable product with a surprise element – the seedling of how the strategy unfolded."The brand grew that seed as PepsiCo developed consumer touchpoints and market learning, Seek says. "We know that consumers are leaving the cola category. We've seen on average 90 million cases lost per year. We can use [Pepsi] Next to get back a portion of that."The company does not see Pepsi Next as a proposition for the diet segment, Seek says, rather the "consumer that loves the taste of regular [cola], from a mouth-feel perspective and the intense flavor. It's all about capturing that real cola taste and the full flavor … but without all the calories and sugar."The campaign, which launched in March and continued through the summer, employed TracyLocke, Wilton, Conn., for in-store assets; Chiat, Los Angeles, for television and other advertising creative; and Promotions Group West (PGW), Venice, Calif., for experiential marketing that included a nationwide sampling campaign in 40 cities, at Walmart Supercenters and online through Facebook.PepsiCo, with help from New York-based digital agency The Barbarian Group, conducted an "Internet Taste Test" via Facebook that did not involve actual tasting of the product. Rather, improv actors from a website called Funny or Die created a persona, based on information provided through a consumer's Facebook profile, and impersonated the facial expressions and other reactions they imagined that consumer would have. A video – more than 500 were created – was then sent to the consumer, who could forward it. "The goal is to make it as share-worthy as possible so the consumer would spread that along to their network," Seek says. "They would riff off whatever kind of nugget the consumer provided. They wanted to make sure it was representative of who that person would be – funny, quirky things about them based on the information." In late July, the Pepsi Next Facebook page indicated a related "Audio Taste Test" was to appear next.Walmart is a "critical" on-the-ground partner to the campaign, which was developed with help from the mass merchandiser's consumer insights, Seek says, declining to name any specific insights. "They believed in it so much that they have let us set up a bigger grassroots footprint than we may have expected," she says. "They've been great about helping to raise awareness, connecting the product with their own Facebook presence, and driving that back to retail."Speedway, 7-Eleven, Publix, Save-A-Lot, Target and Pathmark also supported the Pepsi Next launch through in-store floorstands, shelf signs and endcaps. PepsiCo had not identified the P-O-P producers as of press time.