Last year's Pepsi ad campaign featuring homegrown Ukrainian rockers Okean Elzy has paid big dividends for both the soft drink and the band.
In the west, product sponsors pay handsomely for celebrity endorsements.Marketers know that attracking consumers who identify with professional athlete or film star can be worth millions of dollars in sales.
But a marketing campaign promoting Pepsi‑Cola in Ukraine last year took a slightly different twist. Instead of associating the brand with an internationally recognized pop star, the brand became affiliated with local talent: homegrown Ukrainian rockers Okean Elzy. It was the first time Pepsi had linked its advertising campaign to a local or regional Eastern European celebrity, and now that the campaign has concluded, representatives of both Pepsi and the band say the effort paid off.
Pepsi saw its Ukrainian sales benefit as a result of the local association and the promotional effort helped the band increase its fan base as well, building interest in its concerts and record sales.
As part of last year’s Pepsi promotional efforts, Okean Elzy held concerts in eight of Ukraine’s largest cities and was featured in Pepsi television advertising.
As might be expected from a big‑budget ad campaign, the association between the band and the soft drink didn’t happen by chance.
During fall 2000 UMG, a Ukrainian marketing firm retained by Pepsi, asked consumers across Ukraine in the cola brand’s target 14‑ to 21‑year‑old age group about their tastes in music. Pollsters asked respondents to name their favorite groups, and Okean Elzy was the undisputed favorite, said Pepsi‑Cola Ukraine Marketing Manager Valentyna Kabanenko.
Surveyors asked respondents to name the band without the aid of a prepared list of choices, she said.
Kabanenko said “close to 90 percent of those questioned named Okean Elzy as the most popular.”
Kabanenko said that while Pepsi’s yearlong campaign using Okean Elzy was a first, the brand had experimented with Green Grey, a Ukrainian alternative group, on a more limited scale during 1997.
The problem with using world‑famous endorsers, Kabanenko said, is that it was difficult for Ukrainians to connect with them.
“People could come and see [Okean Elzy] with their
| Valentyna Kabanenko, marketing manager for Pepsi-Cola Ukraine |
own eyes,” Kabanenko said.
In a fortuitous turn for the rock band, a new album release coincided with the Pepsi tour.
“The first thing that was discussed even before the money issue was that this would be an equal presentation of two brands – Pepsi and Okean Elzy,” said Slava Vakarchuk, the band’s front man. “It is unusual to see a promotional campaign like Pepsi’s also promote the band’s new release.”
“Initially, Pepsi wasn’t interested in the album,” Vakarchuk said, “but we convinced them that our audience would be attracted to the soft drink and that people who love Pepsi would be exposed to the album.”
Vakarchuk said the concept worked, and gave the band something new to consider when filming the music video connected to the album: where and how to depict Pepsi in the video.
The band’s contract with Pepsi included the “Demand More Music” tour, a 30‑second television advertisement and a number of smaller promotions, like notebooks bearing the band’s picture and the Pepsi logo. Kyiv’s Provid/BBDO advertising agency developed the materials related to the campaign.
Kabaneko and Vakarchuk agree that it is hard to say who benefited the most from the campaign – the drink company or the band.
“It was a successful campaign, and it proved that our policy was right,” Kabanenko said.
Kabanenko said the company’s promotional campaigns run for one year, then are replaced by a new project. “Our target consumers are young people who constantly need something new, something different,” she said. “That doesn’t mean that Okean Elzy is out‑of‑date, but just that we need to change.”
Prior to the Okean Elzy campaign, Pepsi’s Ukrainian campaign featured Puerto Rican Ricky Martin. Now that the local band’s contract has expired, Ukrainian audiences see commercials featuring the brand’s new international celebrity endorser, 20‑year‑old pop princess Britney Spears.
Does that mean that the soft drink maker’s local connection really lost its fizz?
Not at all, says Pepsi’s Kabanenko, who says the brand is presently negotiating with another yet‑unnamed Ukrainian celebrity.
