The holidays are a time when people gather together to celebrate with food and moments of indulgence — but Pepsi isn’t always top of mind. Our biggest competitor, Coca-Cola, is traditionally at the forefront of the holiday experience. But in 2022, Pepsi had a unique opportunity to mix up traditions in a way that stayed true to the brand’s role of creating moments of unapologetic enjoyment. Pilk (Pepsi and milk) and Cookies was the surprising (and naughty!) twist on the holiday tradition of Santa’s milk and cookies.

Our objectives were threefold:

Drive saliency during a key holiday occasion

Instigate moments of unapologetic enjoyment

Win mindshare during a competitor’s biggest stronghold holiday

Keeping these goals in mind, Pepsi teamed up with two of the biggest stars of the holidays — Lindsay Lohan and Santa Claus — to give fans a new and delicious way to enjoy Pepsi during the festive season.

Pepsi gave Santa’s favorite holiday snack of milk and cookies an upgrade with Pilk, the surprising, dirty soda twist that fans didn’t see coming. From December 1-25, we invited consumers to join the naughty list by following the brand on Instagram, Twitter or TikTok, and sharing a photo or video of their dirty, delicious take on the Pilk and Cookies treat. The sweepstakes gave 25 entrants the chance to score cash for their holiday gifts — in the process, sparking moments of unapologetic enjoyment for fans nationwide.

But we couldn’t do it alone. Beginning December 1, Pepsi enlisted the help of Lindsay Lohan to help bring Pilk and Cookies to life. Fresh off her Netflix film, “Falling for Christmas,” Lohan wowed in two iconic spots for Pepsi that quickly took the Internet by storm, driving intrigue, conversation and trial for Pilk across social channels and national media outlets.

We rooted Pilk in cultural, consumer, and brand truths. Culturally, the holidays are a time of unapologetic enjoyment, but our competitor has historically owned the moment. From the consumer POV, research uncovered an increase in baking during the holidays. This is especially true of our target millennial audience, who leverage baking as a means of bonding with family. Lastly, as a brand, Pepsi is all about instigating moments of unapologetic enjoyment.

Anchoring the strategy in our core truths, we leveraged an opportunity to transform the holiday classic — milk and cookies — into Pilk. Known in pop culture as “dirty soda,” Pilk combines Pepsi with milk. The trending combo gained viral fame on TikTok, making Pilk a great way to drive mass awareness and reach shoppers celebrating the holidays. Pepsi therefore crafted the ultimate Pilk recipes to pair perfectly with cookies, empowering fans to try out the combinations for themselves.

Pilk and Cookies broke through to pop culture in a big way, thanks to 360-degree activation touchpoints featuring robust PR/social strategy, engaging content, paid media support, press/influencer kits, and e-commerce amplification. To launch, Pepsi drove massive PR awareness with strong product-forward visuals, coupled with two iconic holiday spots featuring Lindsay Lohan. We strategically pitched the spots and visuals, which featured a classic holiday scene of milk and cookies — but things took an unexpected twist when Lohan spiked her milk with Pepsi.

Pepsi strategically positioned Pilk as a new holiday tradition, and facilitated product samples with key broadcast media to encourage on-air tastings, ultimately fueling intrigue and participation in the #PilkandCookies Holiday Challenge. The conversation continued across social media throughout December, with new Pilk recipe videos dropping weekly for consumers to try, paid media across all social platforms, and shoppable Pilk and Cookies bundles available on e-commerce sites.

Pilk smashed targets across earned media impressions and social conversation, generating 10B+ impressions across top-tier outlets, and 500M+ social impressions. Campaign content beat out every social platform’s 3-month benchmark average, with Twitter & Facebook showing the strongest performance at 12.4% and 10.1% engagement rates. And while Coca-Cola has historically been at the forefront of the holidays, Pilk leveled the playing field, earning 28% more online buzz than its biggest competitor during the campaign runtime, and increasing purchase intent by 54%.

#PilkandCookies also had a tremendous impact on brand favorability and business impact within the marketplace. Pepsi favorability was 41% higher among those who recalled the Pilk and Cookies campaign and we saw consumers identifying greater association of Pepsi as a brand to enjoy during the holidays (+10pts).

1 Source: Engagement Labs Deep Diagnostics Survey for Pepsi Pilk & Cookies, December 2022