Want to have your face on a Pepsi can? Well, first you need to sell more than a 100 million albums around the globe and win 16 Grammy awards. At least, that’s what it took for Beyonce to get her face etched into aluminum.

As already announced, Bey is starring in the Pepsi-sponsored Super Bowl XLVII halftime show in February as part of the brand's multimillion-dollar return to the Big Game after pulling out in 2010 to reallocate its funds for the social Pepsi Refresh crowdsourced philanthropy platform. Now

Now PepsiCo is expanding its Super Bowl deal with the performer beyond the half-time show into a full-blown partnership in a $50 million deal that will burnish the Pepsi brand and Brand Beyonce, including marketing support for her new album that's dropping next year.Continue reading...

Collaborating with startups is becoming popular these days. GE funds a startup incubator program; PepsiCo is expanding its PepsiCo10 initiative, which pairs startups with brands such as Quaker; BMW's iVentures arm is a $100 million venture capital fund that's investing in mobile innovation; and Lexus is getting into the startup funding business.  Now you can add Mondelēz International to that list.

With a tagline of "The Future in 90 Days," the two-day old company's new Mobile Futures program was announced at the Mobile Marketing Association's Advertising Week conference in New York. The program is structured in two phases: scaling startup innovation, and creating entirely new mobile ventures by partnering entrepreneurs in the mobile space with "up to 10" Mondelez brands, as Mondelēz VP of Global Media and Consumer Engagement Bonin Bough told Ad Age.

Bough is bringing a solid track record to the task. He oversaw digital and consumer engagement at PepsiCo, including the now wrapped Pepsi Refresh Project crowdsourced community project-funding platform, before joining Kraft Foods in February. He's tapping that experience to spur mobile innovation at Mondelēz, the just-launched global corporate identity for Kraft Foods following Monday's spin-off of Kraft's North American consumer packaged brands.Continue reading...

Remember last November's Unhate campaign? That was Benetton's return to form as a professional muckraker, stirring controversy by showing opposed world leaders locking lips, on posters and banners erected, larger than life, in public places.

Now the Italian-based retailer is courting controversy again with the latest installment of Unhate — a contest called Unemployee of the Year, and targeting so-called "NEETs."That's an acronym for "Not in Education, Employment or Training," or what Mitt Romney might call the younger wedge of the 47%.

The contest, running Sept. 18 through Oct. 14, invites people aged 18 to 30 to submit proposals for projects "that lead to positive social impact in their community," and upload them (recalling Pepsi's now-defunct Pepsi Refresh Project) to the UNHATE website. The fine print notes that the community projects must "reflect the philosophy and fundamental values of the UNHATE Foundation."Continue reading...

PepsiCo executives were assailed for having let Diet Coke usurp their flagship brand to take second place, behind Coca-Cola, in U.S. soft drink sales in 2011. How they marketed — or, rather, didn't market — Pepsi was flagged by some observers as part of the problem.

Well, the company got the message. And among the many recent indicators of that — including Pepsi's major sponsorship of The X Factor, its endorsement relationship with Nicki Minaj, and the shaking up of its upper management under CEO Indra Nooyi — may be that, when Super Bowl XLVII reaches halftime on February 3 at the Superdome in New Orleans, Pepsi today confirmed reports that it's taking over as sponsor of the iconic halftime show.

"Pepsi's deep-rooted heritage with the Super Bowl and with music truly makes this relationship a natural fit," Adam Harter, PepsiCo Beverages' VP of consumer engagement, said in a press release. "As the most-watched and highly anticipated entertainment event of the year, the Super Bowl Halftime Show is right at the heart of sports and music."Continue reading...

Coca-Cola and Pepsi have always been very protective of their secret recipes, but the two soda giants may need to own up to one little detail if they want to maintain sales with a certain segment of the population.

A new study out of France claims that the two soda giants' beverages contain a trace amount of alcohol. In fact, according to the National Institute of Consumption in Paris, more than half of the leading cola brands do, which is bad news for those who can’t drink the stuff for religious, safety, or medical reasons.

The actual amount is quite low, “but the figures will still be enough to upset the thousands of Muslims who regularly drink Cola because their religion forbids them from drinking alcohol,” the Daily Mail commented.

“It is possible that traces of alcohol come from the process,” said Michel Pepin, scientific director for Coca-Cola France. “The Paris Mosque has provided us with a certificate stating that our products can be consumed by the Muslim community in line with the religious opinions of the Committee of the Mosque of Paris.” Pepsi insists that it doesn’t use alcohol in its recipe.

Meanwhile, soda makers are embroiled in a separate fight against all the organizations and politicians that are linking soda to the exploding waistlines of our population.Continue reading...

PepsiCo’s archrival Coca-Cola may be sinking $5 billion into India, but it is finding a different way of reaching the international market: the Super Bowl.

Pepsi sponsored the Super Bowl’s halftime show back in 2007 when Prince and the Florida A&M marching band took to the field to entertain the masses. Since then, Bridgestone has been the sponsor of the halftime show. Now comes word that the beverage maker is returning to that sponsorship position, according to USA Today.

It's a significant move given that Pepsi ditched the Super Bowl in 2010, after spending $33 million on Super Bowl advertising a year earlier, in order to dole out more than $20 million in grants to non-profits and community projects via crowdsourced philanthropy under its Pepsi Refresh program.

Pepsi's return to the Super Bowl, where it's been a major sponsor over the years, comes as something of a relief to the NFL and its broadcast partners following GM's recent announcement that it's skipping the 2013 Super Bowl (and Facebook) ads in order to focus on China by sponsoring Britain's Manchester United football club.Continue reading...

As it implements a global re-set of its Pepsi brand and corporate priorities, PepsiCo is girding for even more pitched battle with a re-energized Coca-Cola. And if only because PepsiCo plans to boost spending on its major brands by at least a half-billion dollars this year, the competition between the two giants should be the sharpest in some time.

PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi and the company's board announced strategic investments during their business review last week that are aimed at the major pressure points being applied lately by restive PepsiCo investors and others. In the meantime, Coca-Cola also announced massive overall cost cuts as well as a decision to use the savings of up to $650 million in extra marketing and brand buildling.

The boost in marketing outlays announced by PepsiCo will be devoted to the largest beverage brands, especially struggling Pepsi, as well as snack brands. But many of the agencies that have been serving the brands to date are being swept out in a massive 65% reduction in the number of partners used by the beverages business. And Pepsi will be culling many of the non-performers from its 400-plus global brands.Continue reading...

Pepsi's new year's resolutions include bringing the Pepsi Refresh Project to Canada with a commitment to supporting social innovation and community projects with "over $1 million" in grants to non-profits, businesses and individuals seeking funding for positive ideas that will have an impact on their communities.

The latest expansion of PepsiCo's crowdsourced social good platform, which launched in 2010 by redirecting its $20 million annual Super Bowl budget and subsequently faced allegations of cheating before expanding in Europe, Asia and Latin America last year and becoming a marketing case study at Harvard, follows a company-backed survey that found "92 per cent of Canadians would like to do something to improve the world around them, but many lack the money and the know-how to put their ideas into action."Continue reading...