Pepsi
Image Source: Marketing Dive

Each brand curates marketing campaigns for its products to attract its target audience the most. Now, this could be through an emotional storyline or an informational. Will the campaign be labeled creative can only be seen after it has been executed and the audience’s response registered. And the recent campaign for zero sugar Pepsi can successfully be termed creative.

So, what new angle has the brand explored?

For the zero sugar Pepsi, the brand has picked the 30 to 40-year-old men as its target market. In 15 seconds clip, they have used more than 70 voiceovers, so overall they have released more than 70 short clips. And each clip addresses one aspect of compromise in life these middle-aged men have made.

This campaign has been launched on mainstream media (radio and TV) as well as digital media. They have termed the campaign “Zero Sugar, Zero Compromise.”

The Target audience 

By choosing the age range of 30 to 40-year-olds, the brand has gotten a perimeter to base their ideas on it. They have concluded that this age group mostly makes the switch from regular cola to sugar-free. These men who are juggling between so many responsibilities, work, family, dreams have to make numerous compromises. But the sugar-free cola is the one aspect; Pepsi promises they won’t feel like it’s a compromise.

Todd Kaplan, vice president of marketing at Pepsi, said: “We’re getting very granular with our media buy. What are those parts through his day where he’s compromising, and how to do those stitch to actual media behaviors?”

Statements by Pepsi

Caitlin Coburn, director of brand engagement at Pepsi, said:

“We’ve been playing in this personalization space, and we’ve seen that campaign performance is really positively impacted when we have customized messaging. This is really just a double-down on that strategy.”

With this strategy and customized messaging, they have really tapped into quite a number of issues that men do face. For instance, they are no more spontaneous enough to go on a fancy date out of the blue. They have to think about responsibilities at home (kids) and finances (the monthly expenses). So they have to compromise on a 15-minute drive and takeaway.

This is a great angle, and yes, all these changes are definitely faced by 30 to 40-year-olds. But where it seems a little problematic is, do only men face these issues. Don’t women of the same age group very much face these issues as well?

The brand has said that it will continue to evolve the ‘Zero Sugar, Zero Compromise’ message. So let’s see what they incorporate further into it.

Kaplan says, “Whether it’s based on real-time things we’re seeing and we want a quick turn … we can build more pretty quickly. Voice-over is a pretty easy thing to do. You can do it remotely, and you can pop it in pretty quick.”

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