Pepsi’s Super Bowl Halftime Show sponsorship ends after a decade

Pepsi is not renewing its title sponsorship of the NFL's Super Bowl Halftime Show, it announced Tuesday, confirming months of speculation and officially ending its 10-year run during which the 12-minute event became an advertising star in a night of advertising stars. Pepsi characterized the move as the first step in a “much larger strategic shift” in how it would present music and entertainment experiences to fans, although it shared few immediate details of those plans. Pepsi parent PepsiCo made the announcement while also noting multiyear extensions of other brand sponsorship deals with the NFL, including deals covering Gatorade, Frito-Lay and Pepsi. Those deals were also set to expire this year. The NFL has not yet named a replacement sponsor. “The Super Bowl Halftime performance has grown to become the most talked about musical event of the year and delivers what advertisers most crave—aggregating a massive live audience,” an NFL spokesman said in a statement. “As you would expect, we’ve received an incredible amount of interest from the marketplace and look forward to announcing a new partner.” Pepsi took over as the Super Bowl’s official halftime sponsor from Bridgestone in 2012. In its 10 years as the Halftime Show sponsor, Pepsi welcomed 26 musical acts to the stage representing 167 Grammy Awards and nearly 1,000 hit songs, the brand noted. Pepsi won Twitter’s “Brand Bowl” three years in a row, dominating the social conversation and chatter on Super Bowl Sunday, known as advertising's biggest night. This year's show featured performances by Dr. Dre, Snoop Dog, Eminem, Mary J. Blige, Kendrick Lamar and 50 Cent. Brands on the rise—a new Ad Age series How Celsius energy drink is challenging Monster and Red Bull—and winning Behind Vuori's marketing efforts in the activewear space Inside the rise of hair color brand Madison Reed In a statement, Pepsi said that it "elevated and innovated" the halftime show during its run as the sponsor, "driving cultural conversation and rewriting the script on traditional brand sponsorships.” “Pepsi’s decision to leave the Halftime Show is the first move in its much larger strategic shift to bring unprecedented music and entertainment experiences to fans—where they are now, and where they will be in the future,” the statement continued. “As entertainment evolves, and the way people consume music changes, Pepsi is intent on showing up and showing out, to guarantee the level of access and engaging experiences fans have come to expect from the brand.” Enter Ad Age's 40 Under 40 at AdAge.com/40u40.

Pepsi’s Super Bowl Halftime Show sponsorship ends after a decade

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