PepsiCo Uses Trend of Multiple Brands in One Super Bowl Ad

PepsiCo is going into the 2022 Super Bowl with a strategy of mashing up quite a few household names—and not just Pepsi halftime show performers Eminem, Snoop Dogg, Mary J. Blige, Kendrick Lamar and Dr. Dre. Building on a tactic that was rare until recent years, the beverage and snack giant will be packing multiple brands into an ad. One goal, of course, is to save money, though when done correctly, the approach can also highlight similarities or complementary aspects shared by brands. For example, in this year's Big Game, rapper Megan Thee Stallion will star in an ad promoting Flamin' Hot products from two PepsiCo-owned sister brands: Cheetos and Doritos. It's an approach that worked, both creatively and strategically, when PepsiCo paired Mountain Dew and Doritos in a memorable 2018 Super Bowl lip sync battle starring Peter Dinklage and Morgan Freeman. Such tactics can work well, but only when the alignment of the products truly makes sense to consumers, said Ivan Pollard, a former marketing executive for Coca-Cola and General Mills. “Bundling is what consumers do when they’re shopping,” said Pollard, who noted that General Mills has often used a multibrand approach with its in-store promotions. But, he warned, it's easy for parent companies to take the tactic too far and lump together products with little consistency. “What it boiled down to was if people will usually put them in the basket together, then the ads perform better,” he explained. “But if you tried to do the whole bundle—different cereals and yogurts and ice creams and stuff—then it started to be less effective than spending on each of them on their own. But if you target your marketing to focus on when people are thinking and shopping, not brand-building, bundling actually is a very good idea.” One ad, 4 brands, 1 billion impressions Multibrand bundling is increasingly being found outside the Super Bowl as well. In late 2021, PepsiCo ran a trial campaign called "El Referi Botanero," or "The Snack Ref." The ad featured a group of NFL fans watching American football in Mexico as their host was berated by a ref each time he added a new snack or refreshment that wasn't good enough. The spot promoted four PepsiCo brands available to Latin American consumers: Pepsi, Ruffles chips, Tostitos dip and Kacang nuts. The company said its four-brands-in-one-ad approach generated nearly a billion impressions and 3.7 million digital interactions. “We started working with the mindset of using our resources in a more efficient and effective way, creating a project that is bigger, better and stronger for all our brands," said Salvador Padrón, senior marketing director for multiple PepsiCo brands in Mexico, including Ruffles. "Pepsi and Ruffles have a strong connection with the NFL in Mexico, so the union of the two was very smooth and organic, while adding a brand like Kacang, which is very popular with our audiences." Creativity's bundle conundrum The idea of bundling brands owned by the same company certainly isn't new, but campaigns like "The Snack Ref" show that marketers are getting savvier about how they fold the products together creatively. One gold standard for multibrand spots is PepsiCo's 2018 "Doritos Blaze vs. Mountain Dew Ice" Super Bowl spot, which featured Dinklage and Freeman lip syncing Busta Rhymes and Missy Elliott. The ad was a hit with viewers and landed at No. 4 in the USA Today Ad Meter, outperforming all other snack brands. “You get a brief about fire and a brief around ice at the height of Game of Thrones. Culturally, it was the perfect moment,” said Laura Petruccelli, executive creative director at Goodby Silverstein & Partners, the agency behind the spot. Petruccelli admitted that creating a perfect balance for each brand was “the real struggle” of creating the ad, which also required giving "equal weight" to the actors and songs representing fire and ice. “It was truly a puzzle,” she said. Luckily, the experience continues to pay off. GS&P is once again behind PepsiCo's multibrand Super Bowl ad appearance, this time for Flamin' Hot Cheetos and Doritos. For all the latest Super Bowl advertising news—who’s in, who’s out, teasers, full ads and more—check out Adweek’s Super Bowl 2022 Ad Tracker and the rest of our stories about the Big Game. And join us on the evening of Feb. 13 for the best in-game coverage of the commercials anywhere.

Super Bowl Commercials

The Trend of Bundling Multiple Brands in One Ad Comes to the Super Bowl

Companies like PepsiCo are finding ways to be cost-efficient without sacrificing creativity

Stephen Lepitak

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Stephen Lepitak