So, the Super Bowl is finally up and done with this year. Congratulations to the Patriots for another win. Like many others, I only watched for the commercials (If you’re familiar with the IT Crowd, this is how I feel about the football), which I felt were pretty good this year.
The one commercial campaign that stuck out to me was the ‘Is Pepsi Ok’ campaign, which seems really risky. Pepsi is embracing the embarrassing ‘catchphrase’ of its product at restaurants, for when people actually order a Coke (which has gained so much of the market share, it’s become synonymous for soda in many parts of the country) and only Pepsi is available.
As everyone knows, most commercials just try to get you to buy stuff so the companies can make tons of money to give their CEO’s huge bonuses. I doubt that this campaign is going to radically change consumer spending habits and make the company a lot of money. I just don’t see it as a campaign that’s centered around increasing revenue.
However, I do see it as a great campaign for brand awareness and loyalty building. This is an opportunity for Pepsi to fully address the fact that though it’s still number two in the market, it shouldn’t be considered a second class product by the debasing phrase “Is Pepsi ok.” The whole, ‘we may be down, but we’re not out’ ploy.
That message of product support strongly reaffirms the feelings of current brand loyalty members and can raise the awareness of the brand to build potentially new loyalty members as well. These are people who were ambivalent about Pepsi when they had no other choice, but might now see Pepsi as the favored second option. Maybe so favored, that brand recognition would build up in their mind, to the point where it would eventually effect purchases. Maybe.
I have a lot of fun ‘armchair analyzing’ Super Bowl ad campaigns. I’m probably way off the actual plan put forth by the marketing firm, but it’s a blast to just play around with it and see what comes up. Let me know in the comments below if you agree or disagree with my assumptions about this campaign, or if you have any commercials you’ve analyzed yourself. I look forward to hearing from you!
Skinny Grey Dog 