News: Football stars in Pepsi Max promotion

Britvic Soft Drinks has launched the biggest-ever on-pack giveaway for the Pepsi brand, offering football-related prizes that “money can’t buy”.

The £8 million campaign, Pepsi Max Kicks, involves a range of promotional activity, including a chance for consumers to win £1,000 every 90 minutes.

They text an eight-digit unique code found underneath the ringpull of promotional cans or underneath the label of promotional bottles, which can then be entered online at www.pepsi.co.uk/kicks or www.cash4kicks.co.uk.

There is also a no purchase necessary route for consumers in Northern Ireland, with retailers able to give away scratchcards which reveal the five-digit code under the latex panel.

Other activities include prize promotions to win an Xbox 360 Elite every day for 60 days through playing the position of goalkeeper against avatars of football stars, at www.pepsi.co.uk/xbox.

It also running a range of different prize promotions through the leading supermarket chains. Somerfield, Morrisons and Asda are offering a football trip to Barcelona with Thierry Henry and Tesco has the prize of a football experience with David Beckham in Los Angeles. Morrisons is also offering a prize of a football experience with Cese Febregas in London. For non-football fans, there is the prize of a luxury “WAG shopping trip”.

The promotion is supported by a TV ad in which Pepsi Max consumers direct their favourite football superstars “to get their kicks” in locations from the moon to the Amazon rainforest. Beckham and Henry and the rest of the Pepsi Max Dream Team (Ronaldinho, Frank Lampard, Lionel Messi and Cesc Fabregas) feature in the ad which debuted on April 17. Exclusive behind-the scenes and making of content is available at the promotion’s microsite, www.cash4kicks.co.uk.

Britvic brand director of carbonates, Peter Kirby, said: “Together, Pepsi and Britvic’s expertise at driving cola sales around football is unsurpassed. Our campaigns stand out from the crowd and Pepsi Max Kicks is no exception, being bigger and better than ever.

“It will be instrumental in uniting football fans throughout the summer and exciting UK consumers, while providing retailers with an opportunity to maximise sales and profits during this crucial time of year.”

Bruno Gruwez, marketing director at PepsiCo, said: “Pepsi Max always brings consumers to the forefront with their favourite football stars in unique and ever-exciting ways. This year, consumers are actually deciding how our ad looks like and what their favourite football stars are doing, making it one of our most exciting ads ever. To make it even more exciting, consumers also have the chance to win £1,000 every 90 minutes.”

Extensive support and point-of-sale material will be made available, including shippers, dump bins and wobblers to create eye-catching displays, helping to drive sales for retailers.