Pepsi and Fox hook up for new 'Cherries Wild' game show in branded integration deal

Pepsi is again hooking up with Fox to put its brand inside a show. “Cherries Wild,” a pop culture trivia game show with a Pepsi Wild Cherry tie-in, will start a six-episode run on the network Feb. 14. The move is the latest attempt by the soda brand to gain awareness outside of traditional ad breaks in the era of on-demand viewing and ad-skipping. The show, which is hosted by actor Jason Biggs, includes two rounds of trivia culminating in contestants spinning giant slot machines. If the machines return five wild cherries, the prize is $250,000. The deal was brokered by Omnicom Media Group, which deployed its entertainment and content division, called The Content Collective. The executive producer and creator of the show is Wes Kauble. The arrangement follows previous Fox-Pepsi collaborations such as “The X Factor,” which has featured heavy doses of the Pepsi logo, and “Empire,” for which Pepsi was part of the plotline one season. “Cherries Wild” fits the long-running pop culture marketing motif of Pepsi’s advertising, which over the years has featured everyone from Michael Jackson and Britney Spears to Nicki Minaj. “Now more than ever, consumers are looking for content that entertains them in new ways and formats, as the media landscape continues to rapidly evolve,” Todd Kaplan, VP of marketing at Pepsi, said in a statement. But the question for both Pepsi and Fox is if viewers have the appetite for yet another game show. Networks have been slow to get scripted series off the ground this season because of pandemic-induced complications, leading to a steady diet of reality shows, game shows and talent competitions. ABC earlier this year rebooted the classic “Supermarket Sweep” show, a fertile ground for product placement.

Pepsi and Fox hook up for new 'Cherries Wild' game show in branded integration deal

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