Pepsi is a brand that has been built on consumer activations and experiences built around entertainment and music. However, with the pandemic, the experiential-brand playbook was challenged.

Two new variants launches, Pepsi Lime and Pepsi Raspberry were on the horizon and the massive upcoming collaboration with the Korean sensation Blackpink.

The stakes were high to find ways to find the best launch mechanics to deliver the same quality of launch experience and top of mind campaign without any of the regular on-ground activation and influencer activation.

The objective was two-pronged:

1. Create an influencer led musical experience that would overshadow the impact of lockdown and pave the way for the next phase of launches.

2. Push sales of the new variants and gain market share, in the cutthroat landscape of soft drinks, where the competitors were spending aggressively across the market.

This was a make or break for Pepsi.

The best place to deliver the ultimate brand experience is when one is in closest proximity to the brand and the holy grail is immersing the audience when the brand right at the moment of consumption.

With this thought, we decided to CONVERT THE PEPSI BOTTLE INTO A CONCERT STAGE and launch the BOLDEST CONCERT on a bottle campaign.

Gen Zs across the country were invited to participate in one of the largest talent hunts on TikTok to stand a chance to be a part of the first-ever concert on a bottle

Pepsi Lime became the anchor variant to find the LIMElighters who will take part in the Concert on a bottle with a famous celebrity, Siti Nordiana.

Using web-based Augmented reality, the consumers could watch the concert exclusively on the bottle of Pepsi Raspberry, without downloading any app.

Pepsi Black stood for Bold Taste, No Calorie. For the Lime and Raspberry launch, we decided that a drink that needs to be at the center of attention deserves a campaign that is larger than life.

With the pandemic lockdown Malaysia saw a rise of homegrown talent and content creators, and particularly TikTok was becoming the social media of choice.

These bold creators were in the perfect sweet spot of Pepsi's target audience, and hence we decided to give them one of the boldest stages to aim towards, the Pepsi bottle itself.

the campaign unfolded in two stages

1. PUT THE SPOTLIGHT ON THE BOLD: A nationwide talent hunt for the best creators on TikTok. The winners would perform with the famous singer Siti Nordiana in a concert.

2. CELEBRATE THE BOLD: All fans would get a chance to experience the unique concert on the Pepsi bottle through webAR tech.

Phase 1- Putting the spotlight on the bold

In partnership with TikTok, a nationwide hashtag video challenge was launched called #PepsiBoldTalent. They could audition by showcasing any skill of theirs using the Pepsi Limelight filter.

All the successful entrant's videos were then promoted by PepsiLime and the topmost clicked, liked, shared and engaged auditions were selected to feature in the concert with Siti Nordiana. Contest winners, Bell – a dancer, Syafeek – a singer, and Aidil – a freestyle footballer, captured the attention of Malaysian fans, with their audition videos

Phase2-CELEBRATE THE BOLD

The concert video was available to fans, exclusively on the Pepsi Rasberry bottle. A multi-layered media targeting was deployed to reach out to all the people engaged in Phase1 and beyond to get their hands on the PepsiRaspberry and scan to watch their favourite star perform with SitiNordiana in the FIRST EVER CONCERT ON BOTTLE.

The overall campaign generated overall social views of a whopping 390 million+ across TikTok, Instagram and Facebook.

The response rate for the auditions from phase 1 was higher than all internal benchmarks with more than three thousand participants who qualified for the selection.

The AR Concert is ongoing and attracting about 1000+ concert watchers on daily basis and we are on track to reach our 350,000 concert goers by the end of May'21.

Malaysia Book of Records has recognised the campaign as officially the "First Augmented Reality Concert"

The earned media and PR value generated is estimated at RM1.2million within 3 weeks and counting.

The sales showed a significant spike in uptake with both the variants gaining a higher than expected market share in the category.