I like this new ad campaign, where they will combine Diet Pepsi and Frito Lays together. remember, these 2 brands will be part of the same company after ther restaurant spin-off.
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Tuesday April 15 10:11 PM EDT
Diet Pepsi launches new ad campaign
By Julie Steenhuysen
CHICAGO, April 16 (Reuter) In its biggest advertising effort for Diet Pepsi since the Ray Charles "Uh Huh" campaign in the early 1990s, Pepsi-Cola Co this week will launch a new national campaign for the diet brand featuring new TV ads, new packaging and a national cross-promotion with Frito Lay.
Somers, N.Y.-based Pepsi-Cola, a unit of Pepsico Inc , is giving Diet Pepsi a makeover in an effort to "reinvigorate the brand and increase sales," said Jon Harris, a spokesman for Diet Pepsi. Harris declined to disclose how much the company would spend on the advertising.
The national repositioning follows a disappointing year for the soft-drink brand, which last year was knocked out of the No. 4 spot in the United States by Coca-Cola Co's Sprite, dropping down to No. 7, according to industry newsletter Beverage Digest. Coke, Pepsi and Diet Coke occupy the top three spots.
Diet Pepsi's new campaign, themed "This is Diet?" from Omnicom Group Inc unit BBDO Worldwide of New York breaks this week on most major networks and national cable channels.
One of the new spots already has drawn some controversy. Entitled "Interrogation," the spot features television's "NYPD Blue" tough guy Dennis Franz brow-beating a hostage with a cup of Diet Pepsi. An NBC spokesman confirmed that the network had declined to air the commercial but would not elaborate.
Franz's character in the spot resembles the character he plays on the hit ABC-TV show.
Pepsi's Harris said the company is a bit bewildered by NBC's decision. "It's not brain surgery. It's just a soda pop commercial," he said.
The campaign also includes the spot "Wedding," which features a jilted bride who is consoled by her father with a sip of Diet Pepsi. In both spots, the characters are distracted from their woes by the taste of Diet Pepsi, asking, "This is Diet?"
In addition to the ads, the soft drink giant has updated the logos and packaging for Diet Pepsi and Caffeine-Free Diet Pepsi to create a three-dimensional effect.
The Diet Pepsi effort will be accompanied by a "Better For You" co-promotion beginning next week, in which Diet Pepsi consumers will get 55 cents off coupons on Frito Lay's low-fat brands, including Frito Lay Baked Lays, new Rold Gold Crispy pretzels and Rold Gold Fat Free pretzels. Frito-Lay will feature 55 cents-off coupons for savings on Diet Pepsi, and $1.00 off coupons on 12-packs and 24-packs. The campaign will be supported with "This is Diet?" in-store materials.
With the repositioning campaign, Pepsi clearly hopes to re-establish itself in the diet category, which has seen little significant growth in the past several years, analysts said.
"In general, the diet category as a whole has been pretty sluggish in past several years. Soft-drink marketers, including Pepsi, are looking for ways to give diets a shot of adrenaline," said Gary Hemphill, vice president of Beverage Marketing Corp., a research and consulting firm based in New York.
Hemphill said the diet category grew just 1.2 percent in 1996, while the overall soft-drink category grew 3.2 percent.
"Over the past several years the diet category has been pretty stagnant," Pepsi's Harris said. "There hasn't been a lot of product news out there. We thought it was time to make some news."
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Someone is starting to get it right, IMHO.
Mark |
