As marketing management

In turkey Pepsi started its summer campaign determined to boost market

share by increasing sales of its multi- serve products and family

packs. Pervious Turkish campaigns had successfully driven sales of

single – serve units, largely through the selective targeting of

young people, particularly using mobile ‘text – to – win’- style

promotions. This time Pepsi wanted to focus on family size products,

and that meant reaching out to the principal shopper in the household,

which in Turkey meant housewives, a group less willing and eager to

engage through mobile channels than the youngster Pepsi less targeted

so successfully in the past.

Campaign Budget

Not disclosed, but included 27.2 million free airtime units ( FAUs) to

give away as part of the campaign.

Target Audience

The focus of this campaign was on Turkish housewives, typically the

principal shoppers in the household.

Action

Previous Pepsi promotions with a younger target audience had proved

that the chance of winning free mobile ‘airtime’ on promotional

packs could be a very successful strategy. For this campaign the team

decided to offer 10 Free Airtime units ( FAUs) as an ‘instant win

‘for purchasing Pepsi’s family- size bottles. In addition to the

free calls on offer via promotional packs, cash prizes were offered

– a particularly alluring incentive given the economic backdrop

against which the campaign would play out.

To really hit the mark though, the campaign would need endorsement

from an opinion leader- someone who could convince Turkish housewives

of the merits of the campaign, and show them how the ‘text – to

– win’ mobile promotion model worked. The campaign needed to be

attractive. Compelling and incredibly easy if housewives were going to

participate in it. Research suggested the most trustworthy celebrity

in Turkey was Seda Sayan, widely regarded as Turkey’s Oprah Winfrey.

She was selected by the Pepsi team as the spokesperson for the

campaign. On TV ads and her morning shows, she demonstrated how to SMS

and participate in the Pepsi promotion every day.

But despite the celebrity endorsement and TV promotion, the campaign

still needed to genuinely motivate housewives to engage and ,

crucially to share the message with other people. And that’s where

the innovative ‘promo tone’ comes into play. The ‘’promo

tone’ is a promotional ringback tone (RBT) that instantly credits

the ‘owner ‘with free airtime when another person calls them and

listens to the message. The ‘Pepsi makes your day’ campaign was

the first time this kind of promotional had been used in Turkey.

Here is how it worked. Participants bought a family pack of Pepsi and

found the unique promotional code on the underside of the lid. They

would text the code to a number on the pack and receive an interactive

voice response ( IVR) call with a message from Seda Sayan

congratulating them for wining 10 FAUs. This message also informed

them that a special Pepsi promo tone had been assigned to their mobile

for next 24 hours, winning them extra credits whenever people called

their phone and listened to the message.

Whenever anyone called the participants during that 24 hours they

would hear the Pepsi RBT and a message informing them that their

friend has earned free mobile airtime units with Pepsi, and that they

could do the same by simply texting in the code from special

promotional family pack of Pepsi.

‘Drinks Pepsi, text the code and you can win too! Pepsi makes your

day! ’, it concluded.

Consumers were free to opt out of the message at any y=time . However

consumers engagement was so high that the overall opt out rate of the

Pepsi promo tone was just 1.3 per cent. Both the IVR recordings and

the promo tones were changed frequently throughout the campaign,

keeping them fresh, maintaining the engagement and fostering word –

of mouth propagation of the Pepsi promotion. On average, four

different people called the participants during the day, all of them

exposed to different promo tones, amplifying the viral effect of the

promotion.

The campaign used several other mobile marketing tools, including w a

p banners, mobile games, wallpapers and Pepsi ringtones. Turkcell’s

recently launched “click – to – win” mobile application was also

tested for the first time during the campaign.

Results

A total of 3.3 million unique individuals participated in the

campaign, almost doubling previous promotions. Four out of every five

participants were first- time participants who hadn’t entered any

Pepsi promotion in the past. On average, 225,000 SMS messages were

received each day. Overall participation was in excess of 16.2 million

messages.

A total of 5.7 million people called participants with the Pepsi promo

tone during the campaign, resulting in the Pepsi jingle and message

being listened to more than 20 million times. IVR calls created the

desired effect: 82 percent of participants didn’t hang up and listened

to the entire call.

The campaign outperformed all pervious Pepsi promotions and

overreached sales targets. For the first time 63 percent of sales came

from multi- serve packs and Pepsi’s market share in multi- serves

increased by17 percent.

The total cumulative market share of Pepsi increased by 5 percent.

1.    Your analytical comments on the planning and execution of

the campaign?

2.    Why do you think the campaign succeeded?

3.    What lessons can you draw from the campaign?