How PepsiMojis connect retail, digital marketing and target younger demographics

Dive Brief:

PepsiCo is unveiling a global marketing campaign featuring more than 70 emojis, called "PepsiMojis," printed on cans, bottles, and cups in over 100 markets across the world, PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi announced during a presentation at the Consumer Analyst Group of New York (CAGNY) meeting last week.
The campaign includes all trademark Pepsi products, including Diet Pepsi and Pepsi Max, and some emojis are specially tailored to suit local markets.
PepsiCo is using the emoji packaging "as a means to bridge retail marketing with digital marketing, all without words," Ad Age reported.

Dive Insight:

PepsiCo has taken a cue from its chief rival Coca-Cola, which launched its own personalized packaging campaign, Share a Coke, featuring first names and sayings on product labels, in Australia in 2011. Coca-Cola brought the campaign to the U.S. for the past two summers, expanding the number of names used from 250 in 2014 to 1,000 last year. For this past holiday season, Coca-Cola released festive packaging with holiday-themed names and sayings like "Mrs. Claus" and "Someone Nice."

Like Coca-Cola, PepsiCo is appealing to the millennial and younger generations with this campaign, encouraging younger consumers to feature products in photos and updates shared on social media to drive engagement and awareness. PepsiCo plans to support the emojis campaign with not just digital and traditional advertising but also other millennial-friendly efforts like PepsiMoji-inspired sunglasses made in collaboration with fashion designer Jeremy Scott.

Increasing engagement is top of mind for PepsiCo as soda sales wane, if the company's Super Bowl spots were any indication. The company's Doritos brand caused the biggest social media uproar with its "Ultrasound" commercial depicting a father eating Doritos during an ultrasound, which generated about three times more tweets than any other brand that ran ads during the game. The feedback wasn't all positive — including accusations of promoting "sexist tropes" — but PepsiCo started the social conversation it was after.

PepsiCo's CAGNY conference presentation also featured a drone hunting spot for Mountain Dew, clearly geared at a younger demographic. If the Super Bowl conversation was any indication, the company knows how to keep both the industry and consumers talking, still.