Hannah Reed

Pepsi Lipton Brisk Case Study

Purpose: The purpose of this analysis is to offer a strategic course of action in order to

create a more prominent and lasting identity for Brisk Iced Tea. Furthermore, selecting

the appropriate campaign and mode of execution from the ones proposed, by

examining the existing RTD competition, risks, projected results, and terminal goals for

the brand.

Background/Situation Analysis: In 2009, sales of Brisk began to rise due to the

increased attraction to the RTD tea category, which was driven by the new trend of

health and wellness. Although they experienced this increase, they were still coming in

third behind Arizona and Lipton. PepsiCo planned to invest more in the brand, which

had been overlooked since it’s glory days in the 90’s. Mary Barnard and Marisol Tamaro,

executives at PepsiCo, decided to buy a Super Bowl spot for Brisk, over the bigger

brands within their company. This would require subsequent advertising activity to

continue the momentum from the Super Bowl ad. Since the budget only allowed for one

method of advertising, careful consideration had to go into each option, with the target

market of male millennials and Hispanics in mind. PepsiCo hired Mekanism to re-launch

Brisk Iced Tea with a focus on redefining an attitude-based image for the brand. The

concern was between taking a risk on social media advertising following the super bowl

ad, or sticking with traditional advertising. PepsiCo’s previous attempt at social media

advertising had fallen flat, and there was some ambiguity in the economics and logistics
of the viral advertising. On the other hand, the quality of impressions, more targeted

audience, and interactivity was not apparent in traditional advertising.

Discussion of Alternatives:

1. The first option would be to use the viral advertising approach. Since the target

audience is millennials, this would be a direct way to reach them. Mekanism has

experience reaching millennials, as well as garnering more than 1 million viral

views for 9 of 12 campaigns. There is also potential for a widely shared video to

reach a larger, better fit audience than a TV ad, at a much cheaper cost. Social

media advertising allows the consumers to interact with the brand, and opens up

a two-way communication outlet, which is not offered anywhere else. According

to Tamaro, Brisk sales experienced 34.4% growth in one year, compared to

Arizona’s 7.6%, all without traditional media advertising for either brands. What

this means, is that the RTD market is influenced from other sources, such as

word of mouth and online. The downfall of this approach would be the

uncertainty of success, and little experience with viral ads.

2. The second option would be to continue using traditional television ads. This is

where PepsiCo is most comfortable, and has the most experience in. A perk of

this approach would be the clear economics behind TV advertising. This is

desired from bottlers, retail executors, and the tight budget of PepsiCo. Another

perk would be capability TV has to reach a large group at once. According to

Mekanism, the majority of millennials still get their news from TV. Because of the

20-million-dollar social media campaign that failed to translate into increase in

 sales for Pepsi, hesitation with the viral advertising approach exists, and would

be a much riskier approach than the traditional route which is predictable and

consistent.

3. The third option would be to go ahead and do a tradition ad, but use a portion of

the budget to increase social media presence. One of the most beneficial aspects

of social media, is that is it is owned media. The brand can promote their

product, campaigns, and other relevant content for virtually no cost. Many

brands have created a widely successful social media presence by finding ways

to interact with the customers and draw attention to the page. Cultivating Brisk’s

personality as well as promoting the current campaign could achieve some of the

goal set out for the brand, as well as not taking too big of a risk. A possible

downfall of this approach is wasting money on a social media outreach attempt

that isn’t fully invested.

Recommendation/Rationale: My recommendation for PepsiCo is that they truly invest in

Brisk, and create the personality and attitude of the brand by using the viral ad. I

selected the second pitch, Brisk Brothers, as the strongest concept.

1. There is no better way to reach the exact desired target audience other than

social media, and it’s only going to become increasingly more popular as time

progresses.

2. The use of “The Brisk Brothers” concept creates a catchy phrase for millennials

to remember and apply to their own lifestyles and preferences.

 3. The advertising agency, Mekanism, was selected strategically because of their

capabilities in Claymation and in their experience in digital and leveraging

engaging content to consumers. It would be a waste to not use their established

skills in viral advertising.

4. PepsiCo also knows that success is tied to a celebrity endorsement. Using

Mekanism’s tactic of digital influencers would be a more personal, and cost-

friendly way of doing this.

5. If the viral as is indeed successful, it will be extremely cost efficient.

Action Plan/Next Steps: To achieve the branding goals Brisk desires, the following next

steps are required:

1. Conduct a meeting with Mekanism to discuss the viral ad campaign and how

both the Super Bowl ad and online ad will be executed cohesively.

2. Lay out the goals and priorities of the campaign, then create a budget

accordingly.

3. Make a realistic time frame per project, and allow a safety net for large tasks,

due to the new nature of the approach.

4. Identify, engage, and distribute the message to the carefully selected digital

influencers, and keep an eye on the analytics of each one.

Contingency Plan: In the case of a failed viral ad, scope out the most controversial

influencer or trend of the moment, and explore an attention grabbing concept to display

on Brisk’s owned media to draw attention to the brand for a small price.