This Is How We Do It with Pepsi

Back in February 2022, we launched Pepsi’s 2022 global football campaign ‘Play to Inspire’, the culmination of many months of collaboration with Pepsi and their agency partners. In true Pepsi style, the campaign features a world-class player roster including Leo Messi, Paul Pogba, Lucy Bronze and returning legend Ronaldinho, as well as an infectious music track, and the ‘Pepsi Collective’, a first-of-its-kind curated group of vibrant up-and-coming creative talent from around the globe.

The wider campaign launch was teased on social with ‘Pepsi Pong’, which whipped fans into a frenzy by revealing that Messi was reuniting with his former teammate Ronaldinho, and became the most viewed video of 2022 on the pair’s Instagram channels.

We got fans across the world talking about ‘Play to Inspire’ by facilitating a number of interviews with the players and Collective talent, as well as orchestrating digital partnerships with a total of 5 platforms to amplify the campaign alongside traditional global media outreach. We also targeted key media and influencers with exclusive gift boxes to mark the launch, featuring their very own Pepsi football jersey signed by Ronaldinho, which sparked even more buzz around the TVC.

To further support the launch, we identified a popular ‘before and after’ trend on social, and worked with digital partner ProjectFOOTBALL to formulate similar creative content using the TVC assets. The content series tapped into relevant TikTok trends to appeal to a digitally-native audience – and received an overwhelmingly positive response from excited fans. We also worked with Soccerbible to execute a style-led lookbook shoot which showcased the Pepsi football jerseys, and She’s a Baller to create storytelling content leveraging the stories of the female talent from the campaign. Working with different partners allowed us to create a range of visual assets for social and media pitching, as well as engage with new audiences and dial up the key features of the wider campaign creative.

The ‘Play to Inspire’ launch achieved huge global reach and got fans all over the world talking. As we gear up for the 2022 UEFA Champions League Final Opening Ceremony, all eyes are turned towards the world football stage to see what Pepsi will do next.