Title	PEPSI RETRO STUDIO
Brand	PEPSI
Product/Service	PEPSI
Category	A01. Consumer Goods
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
Ioana Dobrinescu	DDB	case-writer
Alex Tocilescu	DDB	Senior Copywriter
Mihai Calotă	DDB	Senior Art Director
Stefan Vasilachi	DDB	Creative Lead
Roxana Tampau	DDB	Client Service Director
Simina Leotescu	DDB	Strategist
Luciana Cucoanes	DDB	case-writer
Blanka Horvath	DDB	campaign project manager

Objectives

INTRODUCTION: In Romania, Pepsi is the first cola, since 1996. Ensuring its legacy and contemporary relevancy, Pepsi rolled the most valuable SKUs: the-modern and the-vintage glass bottles. BUSINESS: Create short-term-sales to compensate HoReCa's pandemic downfall, summer 2020. HoReCa is 20% of Pepsi's glass-bottle-business. As the beer category was estimated 20% decrease in HoReCa (Euromonitor, 2020), Pepsi pushed the glass bottle communication to the end-consumer for off-premise consumption. SALES: Achieve the same business units (from glass bottles): 1.3 million HL, as in the summer of 2019 while securing market leadership in this segment: October Pepsi surpassed Coca-Cola - (6.3% Pepsi vs. 3.2% Coca-Cola – PepsiCo. Romania). BRAND: Increase the following KPIs: It’s a brand for people like me; It’s a cool brand; It’s a brand that understands what I am into with 2pp. MEDIA: Nurture the generations’ good-vibes by becoming the content- of-choice – reach more than 1.5 million internet users.

Summary of the work

THE CATEGORY: BEFORE&AFTER PANDEMIC In Romania, cola dominates the beverages category: 50% MS. Coca-Cola is the leader while Pepsi is the second-best, yet there's space for other players: private-label and the newly launched Pop Cola, spring 2020. PepsiTasteChallenge is the way to fight Coca-Cola and reinforce the TASTE attribute. The campaign deployment was pure BTL, so it proved to be an impossible plan for the summer of 2020. 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. LOCAL POSITIONING Locally, Pepsi's aim is about bridging generations by nurturing their free spirit. This purpose is supported by Pepsi's Romanian legacy. Since 1966, the brand got to know everything about how Romanians party and have fun. CREATIVE CHALLENGE: Generate a cultural momentum that compensates HoReCa's downfall and creates the need for in-home glass bottle consumption. SOLUTION: Switch the free-spirited generations gloomy-vibes to a "glass-full mindset" by offering them nostalgia entertainment with a brand-new touch. IDEA PEPSI RETRO STUDIO starring as THE NEW MTV - THE CROSS-GENERATIONAL SPIRIT-LIFTER SERVING TV-LIKE CONTENT PLEASING ALL-TIME TASTES EXECUTION When the going gets tough, the tough get going! Pepsi – the generations liaison – continued advertising, providing comfort & entertainment to the generations stacked together in the pandemic and to a handful of musicians who got back their raison d’etre. Pepsi Retro Studio was deployed across brands' owned media channels to serve The New MTV 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. Pepsi challenged the music industry to launch “the new-old songs”, providing entertainment and fun. These new cultural products lived on Youtube, Facebook. They were appropriated by fans on TikTok, streamed on Spotify and known by all through Virgin Radio Shows live-streamed on YouTube too. By re-launching the new-old-songs, Pepsi provided the right content for the gloomy context: „indoor-party material”. Pepsi Retro Studio also supported the comedians by provoking them to infuse nostalgia humor on its channel and the urban culture. Tapping into cultural production: the brand launched its streetwear merch with a local urban shop. And to serve the nostalgia, the beloved board game of yesterday-generation was relaunched under the Pepsi Vintage Edition.

Engagement & Awareness

MEDIA: Nurture the generations’ good vibes by becoming the content of choice – reach more than 1.5 million internet users. MEDIA STRATEGY Pepsi Retro Studio was the NEW MTV, our goal was to be SEEN. The media strategy was to use the digital channel as a TV - for streaming purposes, rather than interactions and engagement. Therefore, YouTube and Facebook were used as TV. The same strategy was used on the youngest channel - last to be hyped on and with the youngest audience, TikTok. MEDIA RESULTS Pepsi Retro Studio became THE online show (channel) of choice for both generations (young and mature) across all media playgrounds, surpassing all our objectives. The old-new-songs were played: Over 10 million times Nostalgia vibes got popular on the young generation, getting Pepsi on TikTok - 147 million views under the brand hashtag #TodayAndTomorrow - 44 million impressions, more than double the population of Romania Streaming functioned on YouTube and Facebook, where Millennials and Boomers rock: - Total Reach 87% - 4,5 million unique users – reaching practically 1 in 4 Romanians - Impressions 54,2 million, triple the population of Romania - Facebook posts reach, 80% organic – 3,6 million – 30% of the total Facebook users in Romania Bonus achievement: - 8% Favorability lift registered on local video - Plenty of earned media, no.1 mentioned brand online for 2 consecutive months.

Social Behaviour & Insight

At the same time with the brand entertainment campaign, Pepsi had a global TVC that needed to display on TV. Yet, a Google Study measured the impact of global TVC vs. the local content – The Pepsi Retro Studio campaign had 145% more impact in ad recall, and 220% more impact in favorability. So, the local campaign brought the actual brand and business results. The people were aware of global communication, but they didn't feel represented by it.

Brand Affinity & Sentiment

Pepsi provided entertainment which made it a more appealing brand. We achieved and exceeded the communication objective: increase brand KPIs with 2 pp Objective - BRAND +2% on both generations for the following indicators: -It’s a brand for people like me; It’s a cool brand; It’s a brand that understands what I am into (Source: Kantar, Brand Tracker)

Sales Success

Business Results Pepsi Retro Studio campaign exceeded the volume objectives more than expected on Pepsi’s most valuable SKUs.

Conclusion

This case is a demonstration that local and branded content can bring business impact. For Pepsi, the cultural embodiment was more important than the yearly push on the category driver. The pandemic-shaken communication plan was readjusted to a more successful way of work where brand wins together with product and past wins over present in the effort of keeping the consumers with a half-full-glass mindset. Not only sales have grown, but youngsters engaged in TikTok challenges and "the generations" consumed the cultural product Pepsi offered. Moreover, Pepsi gained an advantage over CocaCola on an SKU that represents the brand embodiment of heritage as well as modernity, by leading the category on the glass-bottle segment.

Discounting Factors

Nothing to specify.