Gen-Z, Millennial Opps: Pepsi ends decade-long Super Bowl halftime show sponsorship (Score 62)

Update: Shortly after debuting a new, cola-infused pepperoni pizza (more below), Pepsi has made another major move, announcing that it has ended its ten-year sponsorship with the Super Bowl halftime show. The brand will reportedly concentrate more of its media spend on digital while traditional broadcast TV audiences dwindle. The Super Bowl's halftime show has a variety of challenges from social media, streaming and other digital mediums. People are starting to connect less with TV advertising, instead consuming content year-round on digital platforms such as YouTube and TikTok.

Despite this sponsorship's end, Pepsi is still the NFL's official soft drink brand with marketing across channels such as TV, digital, social and retail. The brand will also continue working with the league's individual players and teams. As you can tell by the video above, Pepsi is also working with NHL stars.

In the absence of this sponsorship, Pepsi is looking to sponsor other companies. Parent company PepsiCo also announced a multi-year extension of NFL partnerships with other brands such as Gatorade and Quaker.

Sellers should get in touch soon to offer high-ROI strategies among nostalgic millennials and younger Gen-Z. The Pepsi brand utilizes national TV, digital, earned, social, radio, OOH, print, and local broadcast channels. It holds planning conversations in Q2, and it holds buying conversations in Q1. Read more about the brand's recent spending and targeting in the article below.

Agency & martech readers - Parent company PepsiCo hasn't yet announced any roster shifts following recent leadership shifts, so you still have a shot at securing some of its business. The company currently works with media AOR OMD, creative AOR GS&P, digital AOR Kepler Group, creative and digital AOR Juniper Park\ TBWA and creative and digital AOR TBWA \ Chiat \ Day.


The article below was originally published on May 24:

Pepsi's newest cheeky product activation, cola-infused pepperoni pizza, just debuted. The launch is part of Pepsi's ongoing "Better With Pepsi" messaging platform, which gained attention last year. The brand claims that Pepsi is the best soda for pizza, so it helped fans skip an extra step and simply merged the two. To celebrate National Pizza Party Day on May 20, Pepsi handed out free slices of the new limited-edition pizza in Manhattan. Pepsi's focus on one-off activations and product releases is growing, so it will likely invest in similar experiential activations.

This is not Pepsi's only recent innovative launch; in March, it rolled out a version of its classic soda infused with nitrogen (see video above) and a maple syrup-flavored beverage via a partnership with IHOP. Pepsi's creativity is paying off. The brand had been in decades-long decline before almost four years ago; it has now had 15 consecutive quarters of sales growth, per Pepsi CMO Todd Kaplan.

So far this year, iSpot reports the brand has spent approximately $34.2m on national TV commercials, down 23% from the approximately $44.6m spent by this point last year. Pepsi ended up spending approximately $59.4m on this channel last year, down 27% from the approximately $80.9m spent in 2020. The brand's 2022 commercials have targeted a male-skewed audience via shows such as NFL Football, the Super Bowl LVI Pregame, the 2022 Billboard Music Awards, Ridiculousness and The Office.

According to Pathmatics, Pepsi has allocated roughly $6.6m toward digital ads YTD, down 40% from the roughly $11m it allocated within the same 2021 timeframe. The brand's estimated full-year 2020 spend jumped more than 4x to $29.4m from that of the $6.5m in 2020. Since the beginning of 2022, Pepsi has earned ~665.8m digital impressions via Instagram (35%), Facebook (32%), desktop video/YouTube (32%) and Twitter (1%) ads. 

Right now, the brand's messaging is nostalgic and its marketing strategy is futuristic in order to reach nostalgic millennials and younger Gen-Z. CMO Kaplan specified that he's focused on diversifying Pepsi's marketing strategy via not just paid media but earned and social media as well. Per Kantar data, the brand also utilizes radio, OOH, print and local broadcast. It holds planning conversations in Q2 and buying conversations in Q1.

Agency & martech readers - Parent company PepsiCo is still vulnerable to review due to recent leadership shifts, so contact soon, if you haven't yet done so, to see what work you can secure. Your competition includes media AOR OMD, creative AOR Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, digital AOR Kepler Group, creative and digital AOR Juniper Park\ TBWA and creative and digital AOR TBWA \ Chiat \ Day.