Although Jamaica is globally recognized as having a powerful identity, the majority of its young people think they can’t dream big.

A massive market research that Pepsi made led us discover that, even though young Jamaicans were convinced that they’re a race blessed with a lot of talents, they struggle to break free from what they call “The island mentality”. This is a friction between their desire to break free from the natural island isolation from the world and their inferiority complex that very often limits their potential to succeed. “In Jamaica we can’t”

Our breakthrough moment came when we realized that the two most self-encouraging words “I CAN” can be found in the word JAMA-I-CAN. Thus, the country’s demonym became our Pioneering Solution.

Now, to change the islander’s own perception, we needed to remind Jamaicans that they were born champions in a way that only Pepsi could do: musically.

Surprisingly, even though Jamaicans invented reggae and dancehall music and are highly active in sport competitions locally and internationally, the country has never had a national chant to hype themselves up nor their teams, unlike most countries of the world.

The idea was to create a chant. But one that didn’t simply shout the country’s name. It needed to inspire its people to break from the island mentality and keep striving for greatness by making them realize that the two most self-encouraging words “I CAN” are in their name: JAMA-I-CAN. In other words, “I can” lives within every JamaICAN.

To grab Jamaicans attention, specially the brand’s target audience; Gen-Z and young Millennials, Pepsi developed a 3-point strategy:

1. Partner with local dancehall superstars Shenseea and Ding Dong.

2. Partner with young Jamaican’s who’ve made it big in the country: Olympic athlete, top trend blogger, celebrated DJ, dance queen, mural artists, and comedian.

3. Partner with the government, especially The Ministry of Education, Youth and Information.

The Public Relation’s strategy also wanted to, not only help spread the chant but make it engraved in the country’s popular culture. Since dancehall is a big part of the Jamaican culture and the #1 music genre of the country, dancehall superstars Shenseea and Ding Dong added and repeated the chant several times in a new dancehall song. That way Jamaicans could easily learn the exact words and tune by heart.

To start the JamaICAN movement, the chant was officially launched during Jamaican Day on the island’s top radio stations and in an integrated campaign.

All of the artists and young Jamaicans who worked on the project embraced and sponsored the chant through their individual social platforms, reaching our target audience directly.

The effort reached a larger scale when key government officials like Alando Terrelonge, Jamaica’s State Minister of Education, Youth and Information, endorsed the movement.

An integrated program is being implemented to make the chant part of Jamaica’s popular culture. This includes local and national sports competitions, cultural events, music concerts, and graduations.

With merely 30 days from the campaign launch, the effort accomplished one of its main goals to ensure the long terms success for the campaign. Which was by having key government officials like Alando Terrelonge, Jamaica’s State Minister of Education, Youth and Information, endorse the movement.

JamaICAN became the #1 trending topic in the country.

JamaICAN is Pepsi’s highest engagement campaign to date with impressions exceeding 2.3 million.

The campaign’s reach of unique users hit up to 1.7 million.

Pepsi experienced 11% increase in sales (YOY Q1 2019 vs 2018) positively affecting all distribution channels.

The brand is currently working on an integrated program to help keep the chant part of Jamaica’s popular culture. Not only on sports events, but also in music, cultural, and education events.