In order to find new ways to connect with a discerning Empire audience expecting a lot from Pepsi’s involvement, we completely dismantled, rebuilt and reimagined our Empire partnership. The only parts remaining intact were our relationship with Jamal’s character and the continued goal to blur the lines of fiction and reality for fans.

Working with FOX and the Executive Producers we created an extended storyline that integrated real-world Musicians from Pepsi’s emerging artist platform, The Sound Drop, within the fictional world of Empire. Jamal was undergoing a personal transformation in-Show, and our Pepsi Artists acted as muses while he created the “When Cookie Met Lucious” Visual Album. From working with the original Lemonade Producers to artfully integrating key visuals to represent the songs, we created an Empire story bigger than the Show – connecting the pieces all the way to Retail for fans to experience live.

PRE LAUNCH: Leveraging social listening tool, CANVS, we gathered a deep understanding what the fans most loved, where they engaged, and how to amplify the fans’ Empire experience on behalf of Pepsi to guide storyline development.

LAUNCH: Our custom social series, ‘Emerge,’ launched with the Empire Season 3B premiere. Airing weekly alongside Empire episodes and living on @EmpireFox Facebook page, ‘Emerge’ connected the real world of Pepsi and the Brand’s emerging artist platform, The Sound Drop, to the fictional world of Empire. We used CANVS to retarget fans most receptive to the stories weekly.

FINALE: The partnership culminated with Pepsi’s exclusive release of Jamal Lyon’s Visual Album, “When Cookie Met Lucious (W.C.M.L.)” in-show and across @Pepsi’ on Facebook during the Empire season finale. The artwork featured on the Pepsi Mini Cans was integrated into the Visual Album, with Pepsi Sound Drop Artist, Tinashe, elevated within as Jamal’s muse.

We defied odds to build a completely differentiated Empire partnership that exceeded benchmarks and resulted in an original Visual Album fans watched on Pepsi Social channels during the Empire Finale on-air.

• Drove Sales Lifts, as well as increased key Affinity measures among Empire Fans

- Delivered 7% lift Pepsi Sales, vs. 4% YAG

- Drove +15% lift in Brand Memorability + Top of Mind Awareness and +14% in Brand Consideration

• Illustrated Pepsi as a treat that brings consumers joy through music

- 24% of viewers attributed strong Pepsi Brand-association with music culture

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• Inspired engagement with the partnership resulting in Brand love

- Delivered 2x+ planned views (128mm+) across paid

- Visual Album generated 28x more reactions vs. @Pepsi Facebook norms

- Empire + Pepsi content surpassed Pepsi Facebook view rate benchmarks 91% (+ 23%)

- 2x increase in engagements on @Empire ‘Emerge’ series vs. YTD benchmarks