Inside Pepsi’s food-focused marketing

From pizza and burgers to Cuba Libres, Pepsi has been zeroing in on moments that amplify the brand’s connection to food in an attempt to get more people to buy Pepsi and food together during grocery trips. Subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, check us out on Spotify and hear us on Stitcher. This is our RSS feed. Tell a friend! It is all part of the “Better With Pepsi” effort, which has run in different iterations since 2021. The initiative harnesses Pepsi’s challenger DNA and clever advertising to help the brand achieve what executives call “situational salience,” or preferred consideration in moments where a cola is the right accompaniment to a meal. The program has generated some immediate benefits, but is primarily a long game, said Jenny Danzi, senior director of Pepsi, speaking on the latest episode of The Marketer’s Brief podcast. Also read: Who’s winning the cola wars? Check out the latest Ad Age events and award programs “We’ve had a good run on Better With Pepsi and we think there’s a lot more juice in that squeeze,” said Danzi. In 2021, a provocative Pepsi campaign argued that its beverage was better with fast-food burgers—notably those at chains such as Burger King, McDonald’s and Wendy’s, which all serve Coca-Cola. Pepsi based its contentions on a Pepsi challenge-style blind taste test and an expert tasting panel. Origami designs from crumpled fast-food bags revealed tiny Pepsi logos (a trick the brand would repeat when Better With Pepsi took on the Cuba Libre, known best, to Pepsi’s consternation, as the rum and Coke). Pepsi has also corralled the Culinary Institute of America to prepare Pepsi-infused pepperoni for pizza and a “Colachup” condiment to accompany hot dogs. The latter effort was bolstered by testimony from the world’s most famous hot dog eater, Joey Chestnut. @joeychestnut Pepsi is the only reason I slow down to eat my hot dogs. It’s just better that way. #BetterWithPepsi #PepsiPartner ♬ original sound - JoeyChestnut “Working on Pepsi, you get to be creative every day. A lot of these ideas do just come from brainstorms with the group sitting around and talking about what foods they would pair with Pepsi,” said Danzi. “I think what’s important for us is that that creativity is serving a strategic plank for us; Pepsi and food is so critically important, but the only way to break through in this space is by being really, wildly creative.” The most recent installment of the Better With Pepsi effort features grilling, for which the brand introduced two limited-time cola flavors, Pepsi Lime and Pepsi Peach, each designed to accompany the smoky taste of fire-grilled food. Bobby Flay and Aaron Sanchez are starring in commercials and online content. “We’re seeing that if you’re going to buy something, try something or consume something, it needs to be worth it,” Danzi said. “And some of these new flavors can make it a little bit more worth it, just that much more exciting, or that much more delicious, or that much more indulgent.” Danzi said Pepsi was keeping its eyes on other trends in the space such as wellness and the resilient “dirty soda,” a social media-driven trend referring to combinations of soft drinks mixed with creamers, flavored syrups and fruits. (Pepsi has already cashed in once with the Linday Lohan-advertised Pepsi-and-milk combo “Pilk”.) “Right now we are really focused on wellness and zero calorie options and so we’ll do a lot more to continue to accelerate our Zero Sugar business,” she said. Asked to discuss brands she admires, Danzi pointed to Heinz, which is “having so much fun with ketchup,” and Tinder, whose marketing “leads with empathy.” Danzi confesses a small bias in mentioning Tinder: its marketing happens to be led by her sister, and her former Pepsi co-worker, Stephanie Danzi. “We have a lot of questions for our parents about how that happened,” she remarked, “but we like to talk shop over dinner.”

Inside Pepsi’s food-focused marketing

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