Winning The Drum Awards for Social Food and Beverage Gold is PepsiCo Foods US with FLVR Food Entertainment. Here is the award-winning case study.
The COVID-19 pandemic brought about significant shifts in Americans’ eating habits and their relationship with food. 66% of consumers reported cooking and eating far more meals at home and 56% of Gen Z and Millennials said they were bored with the recipes they know and were looking for achievable inspiration to break the monotony of daily meal prep. Concurrent to these trends, we observed a noticeable (and organic) surge in interest among consumers using our snacks as ingredients in their cooking (74% of DORITOS buyers reported having used the brand as an ingredient).
Happening in parallel PepsiCo Foods US (PFUS) was embarking on a multi-year organizational transformation to evolve from a “Snack Company” into a “Food Company” focusing on both snacks and meals. We quickly realized our first step on this journey was to build “Real Food” credentials for our existing brands knowing the long-lead time associated with breakthrough innovation or mergers and acquisitions (M&A). So, we set out to accelerate progress by leaning into the aforementioned consumer trends and marketing our existing portfolio of snacks in a distinctly new way; encouraging usage of our products as ingredients/enhancers in meal prep versus past singular focus on the snacking occasion alone.
Our objective was clear: Grow PFUS brand association to meals / recipes and help re-spark Americans’ joy of food to rally a community of interest around our brands.
Execution (creative excellence and implementation)
It is estimated that each point of meal occasion penetration we could secure for our Snacks Portfolio would equate to hundreds of millions of dollars in incremental revenue – making the size of prize a significant commercial opportunity – but where to begin?
While PFUS had already tasted success in the recipe versatility space having launched several high-profile brand-led campaigns, it lacked the continuity of presence needed to make a larger, sustained impact with consumers over time. So, we assembled an internal team of Social Media, Digital Marketing, Culinary, Creative and Paid Media experts to devise a new consumer-facing portfolio CRM program as a proof of concept to establish a baseline for the possible, which would enable us to rally the internal support/resources needed for an aggressive scale-up.
In addition to the internal barriers of figuring out how to best architect this first-of-its-kind program for PepsiCo – ensuring it would be additive to existing efforts versus being duplicative and wasteful – the team also had to contend with a relatively tight launch budget for the U.S. Market ( $500k). One thing was for certain, to make this gambit successful we needed to be super strategic, deliberate, and creative to “break the mould” of the typical CPG Recipe Versatility program and stand out in a crowded field. Fortunately for us, competitive CRM programs in the US have long grown stale, languishing in a “sea of sameness”. This resulted in decreased relevancy among younger consumers, particularly Gen Z and Millennials, creating the perfect opening for us to do something fresh and new, BIG and BOLD!
Enter FLVR! This internally conceived and produced evergreen food entertainment marketing program delivers consumers the recipes that trend, from the creators they love. Its brand identity is rooted in Gen Z culture, adopting a clean, minimalist design with bold and vibrant colors that reflect energy, excitement, and positivity to resonate with their dynamic nature. The modern and legible font aligns with Gen Z’s preference for contemporary design and the color palette is symbolic of their kaleidoscope of values they care about such as diversity, inclusivity, and innovation.
In terms of content strategy, FLVR harnesses the power of Lo-Fi video to authentically connect with its audiences. It has capitalized on consumer trends toward at-home meal prep (spurred on by the Pandemic), so-called “chaos cooking” (embracing recipe/ingredient fusion in the kitchen) and TikTok food trends (Cheetos Flamin’ Hot baked feta pasta anyone?).
From a channel strategy standpoint, FLVR was developed social-first, harnessing the power of TikTok creators to fuel an ongoing content series designed to showcase their food, their way. @FLVR_US has become the most followed PepsiCo brand globally on TikTok, amassing over 1MM+ followers in under 6 months. In addition to its robust and fast-growing social presence across Instagram, YouTube and Pinterest the program also includes an all-new mobile responsive and personalized website/email program featuring trending recipe content.
Results (outcomes and effectiveness)
FLVR has driven tremendous success for PepsiCo Foods:
Portfolio Transformation: Shifting the Consumer Paradigm
• +3.2% lift in consumer association of brands like DORITOS with recipes and meals
Awareness Building: Breaking Through The Clutter
• 106 creators engaged, delivering +75M impressions reaching +61M consumers
• +6.5M “likes”, +500k “shares” and +25k ”comments” generated with the hashtag #ChaosCooking going mainstream, generating +2M mentions on TikTok
Owned Media + 1P Data Acquisition
• #1 most followed PepsiCo “brand” on TikTok globally with +1.5M followers (more than All Recipes and Epicurious combined!)
• +560% growth in followers on Instagram and +1,000% growth in subscribers on YouTube
Commercial Impact
• Frito-Lay North America’s operating profit rose by 10% in FY ‘23
• Amazon FireTV pilot generated a ROAS 50x Amazon CPG benchmark with 47% of sales “New to Brand”
By embracing change and catering to evolving consumer needs, FLVR has laid the foundation for success beyond the snack aisle.
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