Title	PEPSI REFRESHING NOSTALGIA
Brand	PEPSI
Product/Service	PEPSI
Category	B06. Market Disruption
Entrant	DDB ROMANIA Bucharest, ROMANIA
Idea Creation	DDB ROMANIA Bucharest, ROMANIA
Media Placement	OMD Bucharest, ROMANIA
Additional Company	KUBIS INTERACTIVE Bucharest, ROMANIA

Name	Company	Position
Alex Tocilescu	DDB	Senior Copywriter
Mihai Calotă	DDB	Senior Art Director
Stefan Vasilachi	DDB	Creative Lead
Roxana Tampau	DDB	Client Service Director
Blanka Horvath	DDB	campaign project manager
Simina Leotescu	DDB	Strategist
Ioana Dobrinescu	DDB	case-writer
Luciana Cucoanes	DDB	case-writer

Why is this work relevant for Creative Strategy?

In the middle of a global pandemic, with more cautious and price-driven consumers and a HoReCa channel suffering dramatic changes from one day to another, Pepsi, the brand that was building its TASTE attribute year-to-year with the PepsiTasteChallenge campaign showed its “true brand colours” in the summer of 2020. By giving a raison d'être to the artists that didn't have a space to perform, the first cola-brand in Romania entertained the free-spirited consumers while pushing its most valuable SKUs to back up the on-premise loss while securing the segment in which it beats CocaCola.

Background

Situation: Locally, Pepsi is known to be the choice of the free-spirited, since it was the first-cola brand since 1966 - it represents progress and Western values. A contemporary brand with a strong legacy - this definition has product embodiments: the modern and the vintage glass bottles. The Brief: Put the vintage and the modern glass bottles in the hands of the end-consumers while giving them a reason to consume in their homes with the same joy that would have done on-premises. Objective: Generate a cultural momentum that compensates HoReCa's downfall and creates the need for in-home glass bottle consumption.

Interpretation (30% of vote)

SUMMER HAS 3 MAIN BUSINESS DRIVERS, ALL COVID-ATTACKED. 1. HoReCa with the value-selling Pepsi Glass Bottles - 2020 turned the main business opportunity into an uncertain territory - limited space available, harsher restrictions changing every day and cautious consumers avoiding going out. HoReCa dropped 70% compared to the previous year (Study HORA, August 2020). 2. The On-The-Go occasion was lost too, as the CAN started to be perceived unsafe (internal data). 3. The hedonic consumption became a no-go - consumers became more frugal and brands price-driven and hard-selling (volume) than brand-building. Global data shows: soft-drinks dropped 10% post-outbreak (WARC). With PET being the safe bet and CAN an impossible mission, Pepsi's glass bottles (vintage and new, both with the original Pepsi taste) became the main business drivers as they’re the SKUs that bring the most value.

Insight / Breakthrough Thinking (30% of vote)

Apart from its global positioning, in Romania, Pepsi is not the choice of the ”new generation”, but the brand that bridges generations by nurturing their free spirits. Even before the pandemic, 45% of Romanians were living in overcrowded houses (Eurostat, 2019). The 2020 health crisis accentuated this phenomenon because many kids moved back home. They had many material things in common and the interactions seemed to be transactional. But what about emotion? We had to search beyond. 1. For both generations, the HoReCa occasion meant freedom and entertainment - the party from the good times was a common wish. 2. Both were digesting passive-entertainment: TikTok surpassed Instagram and TV audiences were big (Internal data) 3. Nostalgia-entertainment became „an escape to normalcy” during the pandemic (MRC Data Study). So, we needed to: SWITCH THE FREE-SPIRITED GENERATIONS GLOOMY VIBES TO A „GLASS-FULL-MINDSET” BY OFFERING THEM NOSTALGIA ENTERTAINMENT WITH A BRAND-NEW TOUCH.

Creative Idea (20% of vote)

From Pepsi Glass Bottles to Pepsi’s Retro Studio Small Screen Glass PEPSI RETRO STUDIO starring as THE NEW MTV THE GENERATIONS SPIRITS LIFTER SERVING TV-LIKE CONTENT PLEASING YESTERDAY AND TODAY’S TASTES AND ASKING NOTHING IN RETURN When the going gets tough, the tough get going! Pepsi – the generations liaison – continued advertising, providing comfort & entertainment to the generations stuck in the pandemic together and to a handful of musicians who got back their raison d'être. Pepsi reinvented all its owned media channels to support the Pepsi Retro Studio concept. Pepsi’s bravest flex was to tap into all the things MTV would do: music, performances, TV shows, fashion and crazy challenges. All these were translated across the brands’ digital channels: Youtube, Facebook and Instagram.

Outcome / Results (20% of vote)

Business Results: Pepsi Retro Studio campaign exceeded the volume objectives more than expected on Pepsi’s most valuable SKUs. Brand Results: Pepsi Retro Studio exceeded our brand KPIs - It’s a brand for people like me - It’s a cool brand - It’s a brand that understands what I am into These KPIs were measured considering both generations and the growth represents both of them. Pepsi Retro Studio became THE online channel of choice for both generations. The old-new-songs were played: Over 10 million times! Youtube and Facebook: 1 in 4 Romanians reached (4.5 million unique users). 54.2 million impressions, 3x more than the number of citizens in the country (internal data).

Please tell us how disruption in your market inspired the work

THE NORM IN THE MARKET 2020: Coca Cola, the category leader stopped advertising worldwide. So it did in Romania. Other brands, from different sectors replicated this strategy. So, the norm was not to advertise. The impact on the market was so strong that International Advertising Association Romania made a public call asking for brands not to stop advertising (Economica.net). THE BRAND'S NORM PepsiTasteChallenge was a summer campaign, by tradition. Each year, Pepsi was building on its TASTE attribute to gain leverage over CocaCola. In 2020 Pepsi changed the rules of the game, by doing something it never did before: a campaign with cultural value that entered the vernacular of the gloomy consumers. THE NORM VS. CULTURE No concerts, no events, no performances. Artists started to reinvent themselves becoming podcasters, going to TV shows. Pepsi jumped in and supported what they did best: singing.