PepsiCo Canada
Snap It With Pepsi

The Goal

Summer is the peak of cola sales. To win the battle in this highly competitive category, Pepsi needed to not only engage their target, but most importantly, drive them to purchase. Whatthe brand needed was a Canadian-made, millennial-relevant summer program to connect with the target during the key consumption period.

The Target

Millennials

Insights & Strategy

With a large swath of the intended audience spending time with media in a self-directed manner, the brand needed to activate its strategy in a way that was native to their lives and daily communication. It’s no secret young adults have an active relationship with Snapchat. With over 5.5 million active Snapchaters in Canada, addressability at scale is absolutely possible within the cohort to whom the brand reaching. In fact, the millennial audience on Snapchat indexes at 133% against the total Canadian population.

An aspect of the Snapchat platform that was interesting to Pepsi was the desire to explore and augment the world around them via the platform. With the Lenses being used by over 3 million Canadians a day, there was a clear opportunity to create a hard-to-miss way to interact with the Pepsi brand. That opportunity was making Pepsi bottles themselves into an interactive media for Snapchat users to engage with - an idea that was crafted and brought to life in Canada.

There is something distinctly special about the precious few months of summer, especially for Canadians. Knowing the importance of the season, particularly to the target, the brand needed to create something that focused on helping it get the most out of the much loved, but seemingly shortest season.

Thematically, the campaign focused on helping the target get the most out of summer, letting them augment and amplify their favourite summer moments through 20 custom lenses. The exclusive themed content was accessed simply by scanning the Snapcode on specially marked Pepsi packages as well as targeted media placements. This allowed the brand to connect with its target in the real world and provide them an outlet for engagement while they searched for the “next thing to do” in their always-on, connected realities.

The Plan

By placing Snapcodes on the Pepsi product itself, the agency catapulted the Pepsi bottle into the mobile universe, delivering a unique digital experience to the target and speaking to them in a way that they not only enjoyed but welcomed. Those bottles (and the lenses unlocked on them) then became an integral component of the brand’s communications, demonstrating the fun that could be unlocked by simulating the lens experience with illustrations placed on top of real life action.

The agency also made a point to align with key moments throughout the summer, to aid in meeting the business objectives within the same period. By leveraging tactics such as OOH and events such as Pride, the team was able to connect with the brand’s millennial consumers in a relevant and fun way – ultimately driving consumption.

The Results

The success of the campaign was measured in two areas: lens engagement and sales, with the overall goal of winning a competitive summer seasonality. The program generated a stunning 181% of its originally projected plays, each from Snapcodes placed on specially marked Pepsi packages, unlocked by purchasing select bottles. Additionally, the brand experienced a similar trend with lens views, exceeding its projections by 83%. Finally, all of this activity required a Pepsi to have been purchased, pushing the brand above its key competitor by nearly a million dollars in sales.