Campaign Middle East

Pepsi launches major ad campaign with ‘Yalla Now’

Pepsi is set to roll out a major regional adaptation of its first ever global campaign.

Called ‘Yalla Now’, the work will run across TV, online and outdoor and is part of PepsiCo’s multi-million dollar investment in the Pepsi brand globally. The marketing drive will be rolled out across the Middle East and North Africa during the next few weeks.

Pepsi’s first global positioning was launched in May last year and seeks to align the brand closely with the entertainment industry, urging consumers to ‘capture the moment of now’. The debut global TVC, created by TBWA\Chiat\Day, featured singer Nicki Minaj.

‘Yalla Now’ is the work of Impact BBDO and is an extension of the global campaign, with the TVC shot by production company City Films and directed by Harry Patramanis. The campaign seeks to tap into a new progressive generation of Arabs who want to live the excitement of now.

Carla Hassan, chief marketing officer for PepsiCo MEA, said: “Live for Now is not just an ad campaign, it’s an entire new way of thinking for the brand. The genesis of the positioning was started in New York, but it was worked on across all of the teams around the world, with the regional campaign developed locally.

“We are not looking at this as a television campaign, or an out-of-home campaign. I think the biggest opportunity for us is how do we activate this from a social standpoint, how do we activate it face-to-face with the consumer? So you’ll be seeing a lot more from us where it’s not just us talking about our point of view on the world, but really encouraging and engaging consumers to actually behave in a certain way.”

She added: “Last year we [PepsiCo] said that globally we were going to reinvest an extra $500 to $600 million in our global brands, of which Pepsi is one. We are extremely excited about this new idea. There’s a tremendous amount of potential to really deepen our equity and our brand strength and re-engage with consumers.”

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