Pepsi changes the game, plays on impatience

New campaign focuses on now-or-never aspirations of the youth

Now is the time to change. After almost two years, beverage major PepsiCo has decided to switch on to a new theme for its upcoming campaigns in India. And this time, the root for the theme is not cricket, or any other game. It emerges from the behavioural pattern of Indian youth.

With the new theme – Oh yes abhi — PepsiCo’s latest campaign tagline, the beverage maker has brought in Ranbir Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra and MS Dhoni, who are featuring together for the first time in one advertisement, in the new campaign that reflects the ‘moments of impatience’.

The new theme that was launched on Friday, replaces ‘change the game’ that was being used for almost two years now.

PepsiCo zeroed in on the theme after conducting a detailed study, along with some independent agencies, across the country on the behavioural patterns of Indian youth for more than six months.

The focus of the campaign is not only the youth of the metro cities, but also the aspiring young Indians from rural and semi-urban areas. “Now is good, but future is even better. The campaign reflects the aspirations of Indian youth who want to achieve. It captures their impatient nature. Their now-or-never attitude,” says Homi Battiwalla, senior director (colas, juices and hydration), PepsiCo India.

For PepsiCo, which has been trying to penetrate the rural market to gain consumers from the bottom-of-the-pyramid for a couple of years now, the new campaign may as well work. While the company has been successful in penetrating the mass market by offering cost-effective packs of food products, with even Rs 5 packs and below that selling more in the rural areas, it was not easy for PepsiCo to offer beverages at Rs 5 or below. Apart from powdered drinks and beverages in plastic cups and conical tetrapaks, companies are yet to find newer ways to target the bottom-of-the-pyramid consumers.

Created by advertising agency JWT, the 90-second television commercial will be run for about two months. “There will be separate advertisement campaigns for the upcoming IPL T20 tournament that starts in March/April. PepsiCo is the title sponsor of the IPL T20 tournament for five seasons starting this year. It had won the rights of the lucrative cricket tournament for Rs 396.8 crore or Rs 80 crore a year.

“Tomorrow is too late. Now is the time to bring about change, now is the time to take action. Many such sentiments synonymous with the young generation have been illustrated in our latest campaign,” says Deepika Warrier, vice president (marketing-beverages), PepsiCo India.

An independent brand expert says “Nike campaigned on the ‘do-it-now’ theme years back. This is not a new theme. Impatience is a universal youth trait. But, the theme would go better with a soft drink. It’s a connect between the spontaneous consumption and spontaneous living,” he adds.