Pepsi Max unveils star football line-up for global 'Blue Card' TV ad campaign

via Marketing Magazine

Pepsi Max has unveiled a star-line up of football players, including Manchester City's Sergio Agüero and Vincent Kompany, for its latest global television ad.

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The ad is themed around the 'Pepsi Max Blue Card', which the soft drinks giant wants to associate with fun, unlike red and yellow cards.

It features two unsuspecting delivery drivers that get the "surprise of a lifetime" when they get to play a football game with members of the Pepsi Max team.

As well as Agüero and Kompany, the Pepsi Max lineup of superstars also includes Colombian James Rodríguez (Real Madrid), Belgian team captain Vincent Kompany (Manchester City), Chilean leading scorer Alexis Sánchez (Arsenal) and Spanish goalkeeper great David de Gea (Manchester United).

"The Pepsi Max Blue Card was created to stop boredom in its tracks and unleash unexpected moments of fun," said Carla Hassan, SVP, global brand management, PepsiCo Global Beverage Group.

"While the traditional red or yellow card might stop play, the Pepsi Max Blue Card signals that things are about to get exciting – which is a perfect kick start to the year for our iconic brand."

PepsiCo’s flagship brands Pepsi Max, Lay’s and Gatorade have joined forces with the UEFA Champions League, as an official sponsor.

As part of the deal, Pepsi Max is launching the 'Maximum Football' programme across Western Europe.

Pepsi Max fans will get access to an app giving them the chance to win football prizes, including match tickets to the quarter-finals and semi-finals. There is also a trip to the UEFA Champions League Final on 28 May in Milan up for grabs.

The app will also allow fans to scan football-themed PepsiMoji designs found on limited edition Pepsi Max bottles to find out if they could be a winner.

Watch the spot here.

Coke launches new global campaign: 'Taste the Feeling'

via Fox News

The company Tuesday rolled out a new ad campaign, "Taste the Feeling," which will be used to market Coca-Cola, Diet Coke and Coke Zero. (AP)

Coca-Cola is working hard to reboot its image amid declining sales and increased health concerns about sugary soft drinks.

The company Tuesday rolled out a new ad campaign, "Taste the Feeling," which will be used to market Coca-Cola, Diet Coke and Coke Zero, rather than running different spots. This is the first time that one campaign will be used across multiple Coke products.

"We are reinforcing that Coca-Cola is for everybody," Marco de Quinto, Coke's chief marketing officer said in on the company’s website.  "People want their Coca-Cola in different ways, but whichever one they want, they want a Coca-Cola brand with great taste and refreshment."

The new global campaign features a new theme song “Taste the Feeling” by rising Australian pop singer Conrad Sewell, known for the single “Start Again.” Hear the song here.

The reboot replaces the "Open Happiness" campaign that Coke has used since 2009.  Other well-known slogans have included "It's the Real Thing," "Coke Adds Life," and "Have a Coke and a Smile." This is its 48th different slogan during that time.

"Taste the Feeling" is the latest effort by Coke to win over more drinkers in the struggling soda category.  Currently 70 percent of Americans consume more added sugar than the USDA’s recommended limit, with one third of that sugar coming from sodas.

Soda companies have been trying to convince consumers that they produce healthier options and in 2014, the American Beverage Association pledged to cut calories in offerings by 20 percent. 

But Coca-Cola has been caught trying to sway public opinion about its soda. In March, the company got burned for paying fitness and nutrition experts to suggest its soda should be viewed as a snack idea during American Heart Month.

And last November, a controversial study was released that claims that diet drinks, such as Diet Coke, had a "neutral" to "even beneficial" effect on weight when compared to water.  The research was conducted by Peter Rogers, professor of biological psychology at Bristol University, but was funded by the International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI). But the Sunday Times found that ILSI is made up of Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Nestlé, and other food-industry executives.

 Watch their new "Anthem" here.

Crystal Pepsi Is Coming Back For a Limited Time

via Time

View the extended spot here

Crystal Pepsi is making a comeback after fans of the popular clear cola campaigned for its return, the company announced Tuesday.

Soda buffs can enter a chance to win their own six-pack of the low-sodium, caffeine-free product of the early 1990s through a sweepstakes on Pepsipass.com, officials said.

The limited-time giveaway runs from Thursday to Friday. Winners will be picked during the week of Dec. 14 and deliveries will be made around Christmas, officials said. Pepsi is giving away 13,000 six-packs.

“Crystal Pepsi fans, and their enthusiastic requests for its return, inspired Pepsi to bring back this iconic ‘90s product for the holiday season,” Linda Lagos, marketing director at PepsiCo, said in a statement to TIME.

The announcement comes after months of calls for a comeback from Crystal Pepsi fans, including competitive eater and YouTube celebrity Kevin Strahle who led the #BringBackCrystalPEPSI social media movement. Pepsi had hinted at a resurgence in June.

The company confirmed the much-anticipated news Tuesday with several social media posts and a nearly 3-minute flashback video featuring a supposed 92nd floor at Pepsi headquarters where the drink is produced.

“The 92nd Floor never shut down,” Pepsi said on Twitter. “And 23 years later, they’re ready to share ‪#CrystalPepsi with the world.”

FUZE Iced Tea and Mr. T Team Up for a Flavor-charged Summer

via Market Watch

ATLANTA, Jun 23, 2015 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- This summer, FUZE is putting an end to the “jibber jabber” and launching a campaign designed to introduce people to its line of bold, flavor-charged iced teas. The brand has enlisted celebrated actor and one-time professional wrestler and bodyguard-to-the-stars, Mr. T, to be the new face of FUZE.

This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here:http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20150623006070/en/

The cornerstone of the campaign is an all-new 30-second spot, “Butterflyz,” starring the venerable pop culture icon in perhaps his most unique role to-date. The ad, which will debut in an extensive digital buy beginning today, also will live on FuzeBev.com.

The spot features a “butterfly” played by the larger-than-life Mr. T, floating above a park bench. With his trademark gold chains and penchant for rhymes, he talks to a woman sipping a bottle of FUZE Iced Tea and reinforces the drink’s bold taste as dozens of look-alike Mr. T butterflies gather around her. The spot concludes with a winged Mr. T bench-pressing a daisy in a humorous nod to his legendary tough persona.

The digital spot, along with a 15-second version, will appear between June and October on media properties such as YouTube, Xbox, MediaBrix and Spotify. In addition to the ad, the fully-integrated campaign includes a variety of social content, out-of-home ads, experiential sampling stops and retail activations throughout the summer.

In social media, fans who tag their photos with #fuzify and #flavorchargedtea will have a little “flavor” added using colorful visual special effects. A Mr. T-themed van will visit select markets and offer fans samples of a variety of FUZE Iced Tea flavors. They also will have a chance to win prizes like Mr. T FUZE T-shirts, temporary tattoos and, of course, FUZE branded “gold” chains.

“This is the first major, integrated campaign supporting the FUZE Iced Tea brand, and we know current and future fans are going to love what Mr. T brings to the table,” said Geoff Henry, Group Director, Tea, Coca-Cola North America. “What better way to communicate that FUZE is a bold, flavor-charged iced tea than to partner with the one and only, Mr. T?”

“You can’t have tea without Mr. T, fool,” said Mr. T, star of The A-Team and Rocky III. “FUZE Iced Tea is just like the butterfly I play in the commercial. Just when you think you know what to expect, boom! Something bold, unique and exciting happens! I pity the fool who doesn’t try it this summer!”

Fans can visit FuzeBev.com throughout the summer to enjoy and interact with fun and original content starring Mr. T, including:

• Place you or your friend in a digital headlock or toast with Mr. T and take your very own “Self-T” against a variety of flavor-charged backgrounds
• Send your friend a “bold” phone call from Mr. T, in which he expresses what he most admires about the person in a fun and light-hearted manner
• Watch weekly videos called “It’s T-Time,” which feature Mr. T providing tips on everything from throwing a flavor-charged tea party to looking “butterfly” and offering general life advice
• Download digital alarm-tone and text-tones such as “Don’t press snooze, grab a FUZE” and “Your phone’s ringing, fool!”

“Our new digital creative, combined with a season filled with marketing activations is designed to communicate – and celebrate – the great taste of bold, flavor-charged FUZE Iced Tea in a light-hearted and highly engaging way. We think people will respond enthusiastically to the campaign and look forward to reaching even greater heights throughout the summer,” said Henry.

Drake, Nas Star In New Sprite Commercial

via Billboard

Drake and Nas co-star in a new commercial for Sprite that debuted during the NBA Finals on Sunday (June 14), marking Drake's first TV ad for the brand in five years.

Watch the spot here. 

Set to Drake's "0 To 100," the 30-second spot consists of footage from Drake and Nas' concert for the citrus soda during NBA All-Star Weekend in February at New York's Irving Plaza, and is designed to promote Sprite "Obey Your Verse" -- a newly released line of limited-edition cans featuring 16 classic hip-hop lyrics, including five bars apiece from Drake and Nas. The spot, created with ad agency Wieden + Kennedy, synchs up with one of Drake's cans, which features the "0 To 100" line "Know yourself / know your worth." 

 Sprite VP Kimberly Paige recently told Billboard that other hip-hop surprises are in store for the "Obey Your Verse" campaign this summer. "We’re gonna look at everything we do and how to bring it life in the marketplace, which will unfold over the next couple of weeks," she said. 

Though it remains an active sponsor of the NBA and several other key TV events throughout the year, Sprite was a relatively modest marketer in 2014. The brand spent a little over $10 million on measured media, according to Kantar Media.

Coca-Cola Bottles Are Back With 'More Names, More Sharing.' It's the Newest Ads on TV

via Ad Age

Every weekday, we bring you the Ad Age/iSpot Hot Spots, new and trending TV commercials tracked by iSpot.tv, a company that catalogs, tags and measures activity around TV ads in real time. The New Releases here ran on TV for the first time yesterday. The Most Engaging ads are showing sustained social heat, ranked by SpotShare scores reflecting the percent of digital activity associated with each one over the past week. See the methodology here.

Among the new releases, Hall of Famer Bill Russell's gritty voice congratulates Stephen Curry on being named the NBA's MVP in an Under Armour spot, and a commercial from JustFab.com demonstrates what happens when a late-night FaceTime session about shopping with a friend gets too lively. Spoiler: The person sleeping next to you doesn't want to wake up to talk about bargain shoes.

In another spot, Coke expands the range of names on its bottles, so now the Marias, Bretts and Lauras of the world don't have to mark their cups in Sharpie at summer cookouts.

Watch the Coke spot here

As Tea's Popularity Grows, Pure Leaf's First Ad Plays Up Authenticity

via AdWeek

As consumer interest in tea grows—four out of five U.S. consumers drink tea,according to the Tea Council of the USA—brands like PepsiCo and Unilever's Pure Leaf have a big opportunity to drive awareness. And that's what Pure Leaf is doing, with the debut of its first television spot on Monday. 

The new ad, by the brand's creative shop Anomaly, is part of a push by Pure Leaf to highlight its product as "real, leaf-brewed tea" compared to competitors who add "unnecessary ingredients." 

"We re-launched the Pure Leaf brand in 2012, and we've seen significant growth since then," said Linda Bethea, senior director of marketing for the Pepsi Lipton Tea Partnership. "The tea category has been growing, and we know there's a huge consumer trend for realness and authenticity, and that's exactly what Pure Leaf is offering." 

That growth, according to Beverage Digest data, shows bottled and canned teas up 3.5 percent in the past year. PepsiCo, with brands like Lipton and Brisk as well as Pure Leaf, has a 40 percent share of the category, up 7.9 percent from 2013. 

The Pure Leaf ad was designed to showcase how the brand grows its leaves and brews its tea through the journey of one individual leaf in 15- and 30-second spots. The campaign also includes print and digital, and the brand has a redesigned website. 

Pure Leaf is also partnering with Top Chef judge Gail Simmons, who has created recipes to go along with the tea. 

Check out the spot.

Mountain Dew Is Launching a New 'Throwback' Soda Inspired by Its Tennessee Roots

via Ad Week

Mountain Dew mascot Willy the Hillbilly is making another comeback with DewShine, the brand's new soda.

To introduce the citrus-flavored beverage, which is made with real sugar and comes in clear glass bottles—the brand is calling it a "throwback"— the company is leaning on its Tennessee roots.

"This is kind of an homage to the Tennessee rebels who first developed Mountain Dew," said Greg Lyons, vp of marketing for Mountain Dew. "[We] have a really rich brand heritage—it was created about 75 years ago in 1940 in the backwoods of Tennessee—and it was because of this [heritage] that we were inspired to create Mountain Dew DewShine."

Created in Tennessee in the early 1940s, Mountain Dew's name was used as a euphemism for the illicitly created alcohol of the time, Moonshine. But while Mountain Dew is returning to its roots to an extent, the brand isn't producing an alcoholic beverage. According to Lyons, the only thing that DewShine and moonshine have in common is the "shine" being part of the name.

The beverage giant has been rolling out the new product slowly, and it should be available nationwide in the next few weeks.

To introduce DewShine, Mountain Dew has been conducting a sampling tour of the soda up the Dixie Highway, which will end in Bristol, Tenn., at Nascar's Bristol Motor Speedway race on April 19 and featuring Dale Earnhardt Jr. 

Earnhardt's car will be decorated with DewShine branding, and the company plans to create content with the racer for DewShine. Mountain Dew has also tapped the country music group Florida Georgia Line for DewShine promotions. 

According to Lyons, Mountain Dew hopes to grow DewShine over the next year and believes that its target audience—millennial males—will appreciate "authentic" messaging. 

Check out the new spot, created by Motive and titled "Rebel Spirit," below:

https://youtu.be/FnMNXZGh798

Taylor Swift Becomes a Crazy Cat Lady in This Diet Coke Commercial

via Time

Featuring a new 1989 song

Comedy legend John Cleese recently told Taylor Swift that her cat Olivia Benson was “the weirdest cat I’ve ever seen in my life.” But Olivia Benson is probably having the last laugh (meow?) now, because Cleese’s own absurdly large feline certainly isn’t starring in a new Diet Coke commercial with the “Out of the Words” singer. During her appearance on The Graham Norton Show, Swift joked that her crazy cat lady phase was “a few years down the road,” but it seems it has arrivied early in the new clip.

You can even hear a new track from the singer’s upcoming album, 1989, in the background. And unlike the Jack Antonoff-assisted sonic departure “Out of the Woods,” it’s the most straight-out-of-Red, traditionally-Taylor Swift-sounding track we’ve heard from the record so far.