Just as the World Cup is battleground in the gear war between Adidas and Nike, it is also a time for purveyors of sparkling refreshment to do battle.
In this version, Coca-Cola plays the role of Adidas, the long-term partner of FIFA (more than 40-years for both brands), while Pepsi plays the role of the upstart Nike that doesn't have the official relationship with the World Cup, but is trying to take advantage of the world's eyes being on the "beautiful game."
Last month, Pepsi launched its largest-ever soccer-focused ad campaign, "Now Is What You Make It," which will run in more than 100 markets. The campaign uses some serious soccer starpower with Messi, David Luiz, Sergio Ramos, Jack Wilshire, Sergio Aguero, and Robin Van Persie. And the campaign's lead video also features musician Janelle Monae and YouTube music personality Stony covering David Bowie's "Heroes." The campaign also has an element about "The Art of Football," which pairs the featured players photographer Danny Clinch with 6 street artists from around the world to create some cool portraits featuring Pepsi's red, white and blue color scheme. (Check out the awesome time lapse below of Messi's portrait being created.
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Pepsi's star-driven campaign is an interesting contrast to Coke's "The World's Cup" campaign which uses a highly-emotional message of the game's power to unite people across the globe. Of course, never to be outshone by the competition, the campaign is also touted as Coca-Cola's biggest ever. It's interesting that both campaigns have chosen street art as a prominent visual reference point, as Coca-Cola has engaged Brazilian artist Speto to design unique graphics that will be leveraged throughout their campaign.
Much like in the gear battle, we will have to see how this plays out over the next several months.
