Pepsico launches worldwide digital football campaign

PepsiCo International and Microsoft Advertising are launching an integrated digital advertising campaign to celebrate this year’s summer of football.

It will be supported through offline promotional activity including on-pack and in-store retail promotions and will run in 14 markets worldwide, including Europe, the Middle East and South America.

The campaign is designed to leverage Microsoft’s product portfolio to drive brand engagement for PepsiCo International. It will also provide a brand entertainment experience online through the MSN portal.

Running to the end of the summer, the campaign targets an international football-loving audience and features eight international footballers including Lionel Messi, Didier Drogba, Thierry Henry, Ricardo Kaka, Frank Lampard, Fernando Torres, Andrei Arshavin and Michael Ballack plus Akon’s charity single Oh Africa, which accompanies PepsiCo’s campaign materials, hosted on a dedicated PepsiCo Football Hero web site.

Microsoft Advertising has also created a Football Hero digital experience, which allows users to embark on the journey of a ‘zero to hero’ footballer via a series of five interactive games. The games will be integrated into the overall branded web experience as well as into Windows Live Messenger, where people can play the games with their friends. In addition, players can create a personalised Avatar, which will represent them as they participate in each of the games.

As players complete each game on the zero to hero journey they will be able to unlock personalised reward videos and share them with their friends via instant messenger and email, as well as posting them on social networks.

The campaign will run across the Microsoft Advertising portfolio including Xbox.com, Xbox LIVE, Hotmail and MSN channels, such as Entertainment and Sport, with two of the games also running on Messenger.

Claudia Lagunas, digital and new media director at PepsiCo International said: “Building on the phenomenal success of the Pepsi Max Club we are excited to be working with Microsoft Advertising again to build an exciting and engaging brand experience for football fans around the globe. Working with Microsoft Advertising we can reach a vast audience of engaged consumers and embrace the competitive spirit of football.

“Our target consumers are always looking for new, exciting and more engaging ways of spending time online, and we believe the launch of the Football Hero web site will be a popular source of entertainment over the coming months as hundreds of millions of consumers turn their attention to football.”

* In the UK, Spar is spending £2m on promotional support to help retailers back the world’s biggest sporting events this summer.

Throughout June and July, Spar retailers will support the World Cup, European Athletics Championships and Wimbledon with in-store promotional activity on food and drink ranging from beer and pizza to salads and fruit to target fans watching the events from home

Spar supports summer of sport in-store