If you can peel your eyes away from Katy Perry and Lenny Kravitz during the Super Bowl XLIX Halftime Show this weekend, you’ll notice another star in Phoenix: Purchase-based PepsiCo. As the official sponsor of the Halftime Show (and the official soft drink partner of the NFL for 13 years running), Pepsi will be executing a variety of Super Bowl activities during and leading up to the championship game in order to “get consumers hyped,” according to a statement recently released by the soft drink giant.
For the lucky ones making the trip out to Glendale Arena in Phoenix to catch the big game, Pepsi will be promoting its Westchester-researched-and-developed brand (and helping drive Super Bowl excitement) at events including:
The Pepsi Rookie of the Year Award, presented at the “PepsiCo Super Bowl party” on Friday, January 30 at the Phoenix Art Museum. The 2014 Pepsi Rookie of the Year will be in attendance at the event to accept the award.
Pepsi “Hyped for Halftime Stage” at Verizon Super Bowl Central, a free, four-day celebration of music to Super Bowl Central in downtown Phoenix. Music performances will take place Wednesday, January 28 through Saturday, January 31, on a custom-designed Pepsi “Hyped for Halftime Stage.” Headlining performers include The Roots, Walk the Moon and more.
PepsiCo Game Day Grub Match, a culinary competition where student chefs from The Culinary Institute of America (CIA) competed to create the ultimate Super Bowl party dish using PepsiCo food and beverage products as ingredients. Amid two finalist recipes, a winner will be announced this weekend at Taste of the NFL, scoring scholarship money and tickets to the big game on Sunday.
Additional Pepsi “Hyped for Halftime” experiences at and around the University of Phoenix Stadium include a sampling event where fans can try out Pepsi and Frito-Lay’s latest offerings, and various events at Super Bowl Central and the NFL Experience at the Phoenix Convention Center.
The company’s extensive Super Bowl branding strategy includes various digital advertising plays, and takeovers at transportation hubs including the Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport and Phoenix Metro Light Rail, which will boast Pepsi advertising. The company has also partnered with the NFL, the City of Phoenix, and Keep Phoenix Beautiful to place 500 recycling bins in and around the stadium and surrounding area to entice visitors to make this year’s game a “clean and green Super Bowl.”
Pepsi has confirmed that it will run a 30-second commercial that will air right before the Halftime Show, but of course, we won’t know until Sunday if the company itself (or the game, for that matter!) will live up to all the hype.
