PEPSI’S major new brand extension Pepsi Blue has arrived relatively quietly in Australia, soft-launching through fast food outlet KFC with a promotion leveraging the cola marketer’s sponsorship of the Austereo Rumba music festival.
Australia is only the second market to get the new blue-coloured, berry-flavoured drink after its US launch in August.
The marketing campaign for Blue in Australia is being spearheaded by Pepsi’s Rumba sponsorship which has included the sponsorship, of special Pepsi Blue Rooms.
The Blue-branded day party venues are touring with the festival and feature a line-up of DJs. The have provided a key sampling opportunity for Pepsi targeting the core 16-24 years age group.
The KFC Rumba campaign comes ahead of the planned supermarket rollout of the product from mid-December and the launch of the first major brand advertising campaign for the brand in January.
Pepsi is hoping the limited availability of the product and the soft launch will work to generate demand for the brand leading into school holidays and the big summer selling season.
The launch of Blue is part of a continuing strategy by Pepsi to reinvigorate the cola category that is also being followed by beverage giant Coca-Cola. This year has seen a series of flavoured launches from both drinks players, including Pepsi Twist, Diet Coke with Lemon and Vanilla Coke.
In the US, Pepsi has claimed the launch of Pepsi Blue is outstripping the success of its Mountain Dew extension Code Red last year, which it credits with increasing Mountain Dew sales by 6%.
