2012 Winners & Shortlists

Results and Effectiveness

By leveraging the TV sponsorship and creating The Pepsi Arab Idol App we’ve successfully engaged our audience and brought them closer to the brand. In the first 4 weeks of Arab Idol, over 160,000 applications were downloaded - making it the fastest growing branded App in the region. More than 12,000 music videos were produced within the App. Over 900,000 videos were viewed which equates to 1.35 million minutes of content consumed. Finally, audience associations between Pepsi and music increased significantly – 10% in KSA and 20% in Egypt.

Creative Execution

Through the App, we socialized the show by enabling users to discuss it in real-time, speculate/debate on episodes, interact with contestants & check-in whilst watching the show prompting their friends to join via Social Media. The App included a stand-out feature called ‘Be a Pepsi Star’, which allowed users to sing into the App and produce a music video by creating a personalized avatar. In short we created the first social TV platform in the Middle East on the most personal medium, Mobile. With Pepsi a mass brand, one of the best generators of exposure lies in the product itself. We therefore printed QR codes on all Pepsi cans distributed across the region, which users could scan to download the application. For QR ‘newbies’ we not only placed instructions on the can on how to use the code but also developed a TVC that explained the process visually.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

Pepsi have been synonymous with music across the globe for many years by tying up with some of the biggest names in the industry – everyone from international megstars like Beyonce to regional heroes like Amr Diab. These high-profile collaborations have proved successful driving both positive brand connections and business results. Pepsi’s most recent tie-up has been with the Middle-East’s biggest talent show – ‘Arab Idol’. However, as sponsor of the show, brand integrations or involvement within the programming were non-existent. We needed to find innovative ways of using Pepsi’s association with Arab Idol to build stronger brand connections outside of the show. In a generation of cord cutters, mobile and social have undoubtedly changed the way we experience TV Shows and music. This inspired us to create the first ever ‘social TV’ platform on mobile for fans to engage with rich content and the buzz around Pepsi Arab Idol.