The so-called “cola wars” have been a long-standing rivalry between soft drink producers that are in a constant battle for market share and consumer loyalty.

In such a competitive environment, brands not only need but are actually forced to continuously look for innovative solutions and stay on top of the latest trends. 

As one of the key players, PepsiCo has been successfully navigating the challenges of the cola wars, using its strengths and seizing opportunities in the market. This time, together with Eskimi and Publicis Armenia, Pepsi Armenia leveraged the power of rich media gamification ads to increase top-of-the-mind awareness among consumers.

“Our primary goal working with Pepsi Armenia is to spread as much awareness as possible so that users start to identify Pepsi as their first choice for cola,” said Lilith Khachatryan, Digital Marketing Specialist at Publicis Armenia. 

“With Eskimi, we were able to achieve the KPIs we’ve set and meet both our and the client’s expectations.”

About PepsiCo

PepsiCo is one of the largest food and beverage companies globally that produces a wide range of popular brands, such as Pepsi, Lay’s, Gatorade, 7UP, Doritos, Cheetos, Mountain Dew, and many more. 

The company was founded in 1965 by merging Pepsi-Cola and Frito-Lay, and since then, it has expanded to more than 200 countries and territories around the world.

The new campaign by Pepsi Armenia, The Pepsi Taste Challenge, invited people to participate in a challenge involving two cups of cola drinks without any brand indications. The goal was to drink both of them and tell which one people liked best. 

“As a result of this year’s PTC activities, 54% of the participants have chosen Pepsi,” said Lilith Khachatryan.

“To engage as many people as possible in the campaign and its activities, increasing awareness was our main marketing KPI. And with Eskimi's assistance, we never felt like the task was too hard.”

Engaging ad formats for maximum awareness

The digital ad campaign – Follow Your Taste – that Pepsi Armenia launched with Eskimi aimed at making as many people as possible aware of the challenge by giving them a fun way to interact with the ad. 

Besides the rich media gamification, Pepsi Armenia has also launched standard rich media and IBV video campaigns to boost the results for The Pepsi Taste Challenge.

As the company's goal was to engage as many people as possible in the campaign activities, the company was looking for creative ways to integrate into its strategy.

When asked about their choice of this particular format, Lilith Khachatryan commented:

“We had rich media gamification formats before, and our prior positive experience with the format helped us to make a decision to include it in our PTC strategy as well.”

“Launching the campaign was really simple – we just provided the Eskimi team with materials that we had, and it took care of the rest.”

Years of trusted partnership in campaign execution

Eskimi has been an integral part of Pepsi and Publicis Armenia collaboration over the years, offering solutions that fit right into their strategy. 

“Eskimi was there for us from the beginning to help us execute all of our digital strategies, and that’s why it’s been a few years already since we’ve been working together,” said Lilith Khachatryan.

“Compared to other platforms, we do believe Eskimi is the easiest platform we have ever worked with. The team is always there for us, from preparing media plans to sending screenshots from our live campaigns. We know we can rely on Eskimi 100%, and it will never let us down.”

Results

Running for over a month, Pepsi Armenia's Follow Your Taste campaign, which included two other engaging ad formats besides rich media gamification, achieved a total of over 17,7 million impressions and left both the brand and Publicis Armenia satisfied with the results.

• Out of all served impressions, the rich media gamification campaign accounted for more than 5,7 million.
• The whole campaign had a frequency of 5.99.
• 83,23% of total impressions were delivered in Yerevan, where most of the activities for the challenge were held.

“With Eskimi, we have never experienced any performance issues. Of course, some minor problems happen along the way, but it’s an inevitable part of any process. Eskimi has always tried its best to resolve them quickly and help us stand tall in front of the client.”