Pepsi’s summer season marketing campaign faucets Dangerous Bunny and QR codes — and the first-party information that comes with them
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PepsiCo is partnering with Dangerous Bunny to attain the last word summer season vibes, with QR codes and, finally, first-party information as key components of the beverage model’s summer season marketing campaign.
From Memorial Day by Labor Day, limited-edition Pepsi bottles will embrace QR codes that give customers entry to Apple Music for the summer season season, together with prizes corresponding to journey to Apple Music Dwell occasions, Beats By Dre headphones and Pepsi branded merchandise. The marketing campaign is a part of the model’s “Press Play on Summer season” initiative.
In response to PepsiCo CMO Todd Kaplan, Pepsi’s strategy is to make use of QR codes to drive site visitors to the model’s web sites in the course of the summer season, since extra individuals have a tendency to purchase chilly drinks throughout this time of the yr than some other season. Pepsi is utilizing the QR codes to attach digitally with customers, with the purpose of boosting gross sales and model engagement for the summer season. In return, Pepsi prospects can get three months freed from Apple Music.
“The whole lot we do, we take a look at from a price effectiveness and shopper ease and on the finish of the day, it’s the best option to join our bodily product to a digital expertise is a QR code,” stated Kaplan, commenting on the model allocating extra of its advertising price range for QR code expertise.
Pepsi is becoming a member of manufacturers like Kim Kardashian’s Skkn by Kim, Elysian Brewing and the XFL which can be using QR codes as a option to entice customers to go to bodily shops or drive site visitors to on-line platforms. The expertise has been round for some time, but it surely gained traction amongst entrepreneurs in the course of the pandemic. Since then, extra manufacturers have begun utilizing QR codes of their advertising and customers have turn into extra aware of how they work.
And there’s extra to QR codes than driving site visitors and engagement. First-party information can be a motive manufacturers are discovering worth within the expertise, in response to Sharat Potharaju, CEO of QR code platform Beaconstac.
“Pepsi and Apple Music aren’t simply making a frictionless expertise for customers to make the most of an excellent service, they’re additionally making a financial institution of first-party information they’ll use for extra advertising efforts,” stated Potharaju, who additionally shared that the variety of smartphone customers who scan QR codes on their gadgets continues to develop, with an estimated 94 million customers doing so this yr alone.
In response to a report printed by analytical platform QR Tiger, the variety of scans carried out on QR codes generated by customers in 2022 rose 433% over the earlier yr, totaling greater than 6.8 million.
“QR codes are a good way to immediately join customers from bodily to digital experiences and type of assist bridge the hole now that telephones can shortly and simply acknowledge QR codes,” stated Kaplan, including that Pepsi extensively examined its QR code characteristic beginning in January to verify customers don’t expertise technical points in the course of the summer season marketing campaign.
By way of Pepsi’s partnership with Dangerous Bunny, the music artist will make the most of his social media presence on Instagram, Twitter and TikTok to publish natural content material that may encourage his followers to search out the particular Pepsi bottles that includes the QR codes. Monetary phrases of the settlement between the events weren’t disclosed.
Pepsi will even promote the marketing campaign on Apple Music and Apple Podcasts, each in English and Spanish, all summer season lengthy, with the objective of reaching customers each day. Moreover, the model will leverage digital out-of-home, bodily OOH, retail-based promoting and its personal social media accounts on Instagram, Fb, Twitter, TikTok and Reddit to advertise its QR codes.
It’s unclear how a lot of Pepsi’s promoting price range is allotted to this marketing campaign, as Kaplan wouldn’t share price range specifics. In response to Kantar information, PepsiCo spent slightly over $184 million in 2022 on promoting efforts.
Different manufacturers specializing in summer season of their advertising efforts embrace Glow Glowing Hydration, a electrolyte hydration and caffeine beverage model that just lately signed Kylie Jenner, and Liquid I.V., which is ramping up its OOH promoting.
“Customers love a genuinely helpful free profit, so the provide of a summer season of music without charge, can solely construct emotional goodwill, so the activation is extra than simply about optimistic affiliation, there’s a real profit for the customers too,” stated Stephen Cheliotis, world model insights director at advertising consultancy Gravity World.
