Recollecting its rich music past, Pepsi rolled out a new television spot titled, ‘Music Icons’ yesterday during the debut of Fox’s The X Factor. The spot, featuring global icons Michael Jackson, Britney Spears, Kanye West, Ray Charles and Mariah Carey, teases viewers with a question ‘Who is next?’
The new spot runs with a slogan, ‘Where there’s Pepsi, there’s music’ and captures iconic Pepsi moments such as Michael Jackson introducing the new ‘Pepsi Generation,’ Britney Spears dancing on the rooftops to ‘The Joy of Pepsi’ and Ray Charles playing the piano to the tune of ‘You Got the Right One, Baby, Uh Huh.’ All this is accompanied by a Pepsi-exclusive remix of the song, ‘Tonight is the Night’ by Outasight, a newly signed artist to Warner Bros. Records from Yonkers, New York. Pepsi says, the song was chosen because it perfectly captures the spirit of music today.
According to Ad Age, the other Pepsi spot, which highlights its $60 million relationship with The X Factor, airing during the show features Kevin McHale, who plays the wheelchair-bound Artie Abrams on ‘Glee.’ The spot was handled by Content Collective and Ghost Robot, while the brand spot was created by Pepsi’s creative agency TBWA/Chiat/Day.
«Pepsi has always been at the center of music and pop culture and is known for featuring top talent in its campaigns,» said Frank Cooper, Chief Marketing Officer, Global Consumer Engagement of PepsiCo Beverages. «We’re confident that the next pop music star will emerge from our partnership with The X Factor.»
‘Music Icons’ airs during The X Factor and across Fox cable networks. In a new season the judges of the top TV show—Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul, L.A. Reid and Nicole Scherzinger—begin their search for undiscovered artists talent 12 years old and over who are worthy of the largest prize in television history: a $5 million recording contract with Syco/Sony Music and to be featured in a Pepsi Super Bowl commercial.
Within their common initiative with the TV show Pepsi runs a ‘Snap and Send’ contest for fans. Pepsi joined forces with Pongr, image-recognition technology and mobile marketing company and uses its computer vision platform to power a fan photo-scanning contest. Nearly 300 million cases of Pepsi product are being branded with The X Factor promotion, giving fans the opportunity to win 56 grand prizes of trips to Los Angeles to see the show broadcast live.
Fans use their mobile phones to photograph The X Factor and Pepsi logos together on specially marked packaging and then email or picture-text them to TheXFactor@Pepsi.com. Pongr’s direct-response platform filters the correct entries and sends consumers links to special digital content from the reality show, such as Pepsi-exclusive videos of contestants and behind-the-scenes events.
Currently, Pepsi is also running a Student Display Design Competition.