International music mogul Simon Cowell’s highly anticipated US launch of The X Factor television show presented an enticing vehicle to launch Pepsi‘s return to pop culture.Pepsi’s role as lead partner allowed us to reshape traditional sponsorship boundaries into a fully immersive, season-long program that enhanced the audience experience through all media touch points, including in-show, digital, social, retail programs and experiential events. The partnership began with a strong launch in the premiere episode that featured an exclusive commercial break takeover, an in-show announcement of Pepsi’s Super Bowl commercial prize for the show’s winner and the launch of Pepsi Sound Off (a second-screen social media commentary platform) and Pepsi Pulse (a social media trending platform).

Pepsi’s X Factor experience also included baseline product placement, on-pack promotions awarding trips to the X Factor finale and custom tent pole integrations as voted by consumers, including the Pepsi Performance and Pepsi Challenge.

Pepsi is regaining pop culture status, the biggest indicator being awareness levels in one season of The X Factor equaled Coke’s 10-year partnership with American Idol (1). Brand health lifts include Purchase Intent (52%), Brand Likeability (71%) and Brand Recall (51%). Previous category numbers ranged from 20-30%.Pepsi Ads performed beyond other show partners: Pepsi’s average ad recall was 51% vs. Verizon’s 35% (2).

Pepsi’s bottling system energetically embraced the show, increasing distribution, product orders and major display activity that resulted in execution across 30,000+ retail locations.

In total, Pepsi’s X Factor program delivered over 1.2B paid and earned media impressions.