2017 Winners & Shortlists

The Campaign

We wanted to honour the 45th National Day in a way that people remembered. So we started with the past. Everyone gets sentimental about times gone by, even if you’re from a generation that wasn’t around at that time. Especially when it comes to iconic design. So we created a limited edition series of can designs, inspired by the 1971 Pepsi can, and its iconic 70s design, and resurrected it for National Day. A design classic with an extra-special meaning: The birth of a nation happened this year too. Our retro Pepsi cans also featured an original design and typography inspired by early 1970s classic design. We knew that if we got the design right that people would naturally want to share it and talk about it.

Creative Execution

Our limited edition cans were distributed to stores and supermarkets across the UAE in time for National Day. Through social media and radio, we asked people to share their National Day Celebrations with Pepsi and were overwhelmed with the response.

Describe the success of the promotion with both client and consumer including some quantifiable results

Sales grew by 5 per cent. Brand preference up 1 point from the previous month. The design sparked thousands of conversations and posts on social media, and the retro can design was so successful in the UAE that Kuwait and Lebanon requested their own versions for National Day. Impressions: 813,393 Reach (unique users): 673,029. Engagements: 12,859.

Explain why the method of promotion was most relevant to the product or service

UAE National Day is a huge celebration. All brands celebrate it. But to steal attention away from Pepsi’s competitor messages and engage our target market, we needed to do something big to celebrate National Day with maximum noise. So our brief was to design a Pepsi can that celebrates UAE National Day. Not just any can. A coveted retro can that people actually wanted to share. Customer experience was key – we wanted to ensure that people not only loved what we did, but wanted to share their love for it too.

Everyone gets sentimental about times gone by, even if you’re from a generation that wasn’t around that decade. Our limited edition series of cans were designed to be coveted and shared socially by a young consumer demographic of all nationalities.