PepsiCo’s decision to stop advertising on linear broadcast TV to focus more on digital video, social media and other channels is proving a shrewd move, according to beverages marketing chief Susan Press.
Last year, former ANZ marketing boss and B&T CMO Power List alumni Vandita Pandey told B&T the beverages and snacks giant was moving away from linear TV to connect with consumers where they consume media.
At the time, she said that PepsiCo was already spending 85-90 per cent of its media investment in digital channels, which includes connected TV.
At the recent ADMA Global Forum, Press told B&T that PepsiCo has a full year’s worth of audience and effectiveness data since PepsiCo—who has made iconic TV ads throughout its history—switched linear TV off.
“There’s nothing that suggests to us that we’re missing out on reach and ROI by not being in that linear space,” she said.
“We are still in that space of non linear and really about connected TV. And I think connected TV is a little bit like AI; it’s evolving every single day. There are more and more and more channels. There’s more diversity, which is great. So [appearing on large screens] is absolutely still part of our strategy.”
Press points out that the changing media consumption habits meant that PepsiCo has worked with its media agency partner to evolve how it reaches its target audience, which tends to skew younger.
“We’ve diversified the ways that we can reach people and now there’s no opportunity to miss somebody basically, whether it is through BVOD or YouTube or whatever it might be. We really stack our channels brilliantly.”
She said big ads that create an emotional connection with consumers are still powerful and part of the PepsiCo marketing strategy.
An example she cites is David Beckham fronted global campaign ‘Thirsty For More’.
“It’s a beautiful piece of comms with David Beckham for Pepsi. And that requires a big channel strategy including YouTube, BVOD it requires big channel strategy,” Press said.
“But not a lot of our brands have the budgets to stretch to some of those channels that have really high CPMs. We’re still doing cinema for Pepsi, that’s really important for that immersive experience, but we can’t afford to do that on Bubly, for example.”
Press said PepsiCo is also rolling out purpose-led campaigns, such as a Pepsi recycling campaign and a Gatorade fuel campaign to encourage children to play sport.
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