Music Meets Brands
Pioneered the first strategic, synergistic marriage between music and brand marketing, harnessing the power of popular culture celebrities to promote leading lifestyle brands while those brands supported ever-greater blockbuster tours.
The Brand Strategy
The Pepsi Generation already existed as a great positioning statement without promise or fulfillment. The strategy: Link that brand to celebrity endorsements and must-see entertainment, making irresistibly relevant to its target audience.
The Objective
To compete head-to-head with the leading soft drink brand for market share, specifically the desirable 18-to-35-year-old demographic. The competing brand owned the fountain business but Pepsi had a strong foothold in retail. Michael Jackson, David Bowie, Tina Turner, and other superstars spearheaded the campaign with their endorsements of Pepsi, which gained credibility through phenominal concert tours.
The Result
Doubled flagship brand sales to make Pepsi the #1 consumer-preferred retail point-of-purchase soft drink.
Related Work
Achieving gold-standard marketing endorsements:
- Secured 300-plus entertainment marketing endorsements for soft drink, auto, beer and communications companies, including Pepsi, Sony, Panasonic, Canada Dry, and Fuji Film.
- Brokered partnerships for NASCAR with NBC-TV and ESPN, initiating the first NASCAR-sponsored country music artist showcase featuring such major acts as Garth Brooks, performing for a live audience of 80,000 fans.
