PepsiCo, Inc. and Brand Affinity Technologies (BAT), the company reinventing endorsement and celebrity marketing, are working together on new approaches to engage consumers via their favorite athletes and celebrities. As part of the relationship PepsiCo is leveraging BAT’s Platform, which houses deep celebrity affinity intelligence, and has also partnered with BAT as the first sponsor of its netBAT content experience (www.netbat.com).

«BAT delivers relevant insight into the daily ups-and-downs of celebrity affinity, and new and efficient ways to capitalize on consumers’ insatiable interest in entertainment and sports,» said Bonin Bough, Global Director, Digital Media, PepsiCo. «PepsiCo thrives on partnering with innovative, smart new companies that thrive on breaking new ground. BAT fits the mold perfectly.»

The netBAT concept transforms online editorial including images and articles into interactive experiences containing multimedia apps that are highly relevant to the featured content. PepsiCo intends to pilot this technology with selected brands over the next several months.

As part of the agreement, PepsiCo gains access to BAT’s research engine, which provides daily consumer affinity analysis of more than 40,000 celebrities, taking into account historical attitudes, local and national appeal, and accomplishments and awards. BAT’s proprietary algorithms allow for an unprecedented breadth and depth of real-time affinity insight; other models of determining celebrity popularity rely on infrequent, small-sample consumer surveys.

As part of the relationship, BAT is serving as a model for participants in the PepsiCo10 initiative, an open call and partnership between PepsiCo and up to 10 of the most promising start-ups in media, communications, and technology.