Pepsi is famous for celebrating and showcasing talent in unprecedented ways. From music to football icons to fashion – fuelling popular culture is in the brand’s DNA. And when it comes to the world of football, Pepsi is adept at providing new routes for footballs’ heroes to entertain and connect with their fans.

In 2019 with superstars Leo Messi and Mo Salah and inspired by their partnership of the UEFA Champions League, Pepsi again reimagined the relationship between fan, talent and entertainment to deliver a defining campaign for the new Pepsi brand position, For the Love Of It.

‘Behind the scenes’ clips are a well-trodden territory. Fans have seen it a million times before and talent are tired of featuring in the ‘same old’ formats.

So instead, Pepsi and its creative partners set out to flip our super stars’ superhuman abilities into social content that would conjure up the surprise and shock players create on the field and deliver it into fans’ feeds. Films designed to draw the audience in and make them ask - “did that really happen?”

In a series of off-camera moments on-set of a forthcoming global Pepsi commercial, we built a content experience for in-feed moments with product integrated across all assets ensuring a tight, authentic Pepsi brand attribution.

We leveraged fans’ willing suspension of disbelief to create something they had to watch all the way through, watch a second time, and talk about with friends.

Pepsi and their athletes face a growing challenge: As fans move away from traditional media, they can get closer to their heroes than ever before on social, and they are fed up with being interrupted.

So how does the brand authentically infiltrate this world and bring fans closer to star talents, Mo Salah and Leo Messi, while building affinity with Pepsi and highlighting a new brand position, ‘For the Love Of It’?

We crafted off-the-pitch films to capture fleeting moments of brilliance, specially designed for Instagram. With no overt branding, but instead, placing the famous Pepsi bottle seamlessly at the heart of the action, fans could not fail to spot it enabling our talent’s ‘For The Love Of Football’ to shine through in joyful pieces of skill.

We achieved this with social films that didn’t interrupt people’s interests but instead became their interests.

The campaign launched directly on Mo and Leo’s Instagram channels a few days prior to the commercial premiere which starred both athletes. Leo later posted a second video. From there, we placed it in the hands of fans to grow and play with organically.

By opting against sponsored posts and paid promotion, fans discovered the unique skills naturally from the heroes themselves, fan channels or via trusted friends. Such was the PR-able nature and impact of the campaign, major media networks later spread the campaign themselves both on television and online.

The campaign launched directly on Mo and Leo’s Instagram channels a few days prior to the commercial premiere which starred both athletes. Leo later posted a second video. From there, we placed it in the hands of fans to grow and play with organically.

By opting against sponsored posts and paid promotion, fans discovered the unique skills naturally from the heroes themselves, fan channels or via trusted friends. Such was the PR-able nature and impact of the campaign, major media networks later spread the campaign themselves both on television and online.