PepsiCo seeks new marketing chief (Score 39)

Sales Lead: PepsiCo is in search of a new top US marketer since it promoted one of its CMOs, Rachel Ferdinando, as the president of its Canadian foods business last summer.

• PepsiCo originally hired Ferdinando as the VP of media and digital for its core brands in September 2017.
• The company elevated her to SVP and CMO in October 2019.
• Though Ferdinando did retain some marketing duties, she now oversees Canadian business. This leads me to believe that PepsiCo will need someone else to oversee its US strategy.
• The company will likely:
  • Seek a new marketing chief
  • Return to heavier ad spend
  • Seek additional influencers
  • Pursue new agency partners, especially once it finds a new CMO
• Target demographic: 
  • Men
    • Gen-Z and millennials: Digital, paid social, YouTube, podcast, and Twitch ads
    • Gen-X: National TV, OOH, radio, experiential, print, and local broadcast

Additional spending insights:

• Broadcast insights (TV ad creative spend, effectiveness, impressions, and performance) Please refer to this graph for top brands' recent national TV spend. 
• Digital and social insights (digital ad spend, effectiveness, impressions, and performance for all subsidiaries)
  • YTD spend: So far this year, PepsiCo has spent roughly $287.9m on digital ads.
  • YTD data: The company has earned around 34.8b digital impressions YTD via Instagram (37%), Facebook (32%), desktop video (19%), Twitter (8%), desktop display (3%), and mobile display (1%) ads.
    • PepsiCo has placed 93% of this year's desktop video ads site direct onto YouTube and the remaining 7% site direct onto Twitch.
  • Last year: In 2021, the company spent approximately $384m on this channel, up 87% from the approximately $205.4m spent in 2020.
• Additional channel insights  
  • The brand utilizes OOH, radio, experiential, print, podcasts, and local broadcast, and it works with influencers.

Additional agency insights:

• Opportunity: A new CMO may conduct agency reviews, so contact sooner rather than later to remain top-of-mind.
• Current agency roster:
  • ​​​​​​​In-House: Media
  • OMD: Media AOR
  • Juniper Park\ TBWA: Creative and digital AOR
  • Ten35: Creative and multicultural AOR
  • TBWA \ Chiat \ Day: Creative AOR
  • Goodby, Silverstein & Partners: Creative AOR
  • BBDO Worldwide: Creative AOR
  • R/GA: Creative AOR
  • TPN: Experiential AOR
  • Swift: Social AOR
  • Golin: PR AOR
  • Mekanism: AOR
  • Laundry Service: AOR

Insight Sources: Broadcast insights estimated by iSpot; digital spend insights estimated by Pathmatics; additional channel insights estimated by Kantar.