Pepsi and the food industry have been joined to the hip and growing together for the last 30 years. In 2020, during the COVID-19 lockdown the restaurant industry, the second-largest employer in India, collapsed to 25-30% of its size (The Economic Times report). Around 3 million restaurant workers lost their jobs. Today, in a time of crisis it was important that Pepsi showed up for the restaurant community. With massive layoffs, the community that served us our favourite foods was now clueless about their next meal.

Hence the objectives were:

1. Provide quick access to meals to at least 50% of impacted community members

2. Build scale & empathy and spread awareness of the plight of the marginalized workers to mobilize stakeholders (and demonstrate commitment to the community)

Target Audience

Pepsi wanted to reach out to anyone and everyone who could raise awareness and help to save the jobs and lives of the people involved in the restaurant sector. Thus, we spoke to the voice of the nation, the youth, 18-34 adults.

Media Planning & Approach

A video asset (a 1 min video), and a social manifesto were created.

The campaign was mobile focussed since it contributes to more than 90% internet penetration in India and within the target audience. The aim was to create quick reach and frequency, so the natural choice was to leverage the video platform which enjoys the maximum time spent and reach within the audience, YouTube. Social media with 93% penetration within the audience was the next best choice; it also helped in creating buzz

Creating the right Ecosystem Partners

With Technology food aggregator Swiggy and industry body NRAI an efficient and direct relief program was activated

Identify the right partners to build reach and relevance

The campaign ran on YouTube with a target of high frequency (3) and views (15 mn) in just 7 days.

For contextual presence, within the Swiggy app, impact properties were scheduled, focussing on the initiative.

The biggest Bollywood celebrities of the country were roped in to lend their voices for the campaign on Social Media; popular Bollywood actors, Tiger Shroff and Disha Patani took part in the manifesto and asked for support. This was further amplified with 200 more food influencers and lead by the most popular Instagram food bloggers- Shivesh Bhatia, Meghna, and Pankaj Bhadouria

#PepsiSaveOurRestaurants BECAME A POWERFUL HUMANITARIAN MOVEMENT FROM HOME

In just 45 days, through the click of a button, consumers donated 2.5 million meals (exceeding our target by 1.5X) directly to unemployed restaurant workers’ homes.

STARTED A CHAIN REACTION TO KICKSTART THE RESTAURANT ECONOMY

Millions helped by ordering on the app, leading to a domino effect of creating more food sales and helping keep more outlets stay in business. Swiggy’s online food orders grew by 50% (pre & post campaign, June-July 2020)

WHILE WE SERVED THE COMMUNITY, WE ALSO GREW IN LOVE AND RESPECT

While consumers were incentivised to buy ANY soft drink, consumers still preferred Pepsi and made it the #1 Soft drink brand on Swiggy

Garnered 100 Million+ digital reach and 100% positive sentiment.

Got media coverage worth 6,50,000 USD (INR 49 Million) and 180 stories of PR worth 6,90,000 USD (INR 52 million