Sunday, February 3, 2013

Pepsi & Coca Cola – contrasting TVCs





Pepsi and Coca Cola are fighting for the same market through the same media. Such a stark contrast in its communication. Coca Cola’s TVC is a continuation of its Open Happiness message. A melodious and hummable sound track about all the crazy things we do. A good blend of young and old characters can be seen in the ad. Pepsi’s TVC, on the other hand, has a peppy tune. It uses its three brand ambassadors, Priyanka Chopra, Ranbir Kapoor and Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Clearly they are targeting the young audience. Coca Cola’s ad though is sans any brand ambassador. Over a last couple of years, Coca Cola seems to have moved away from using any brand ambassadors.

Pepsi’s ad is more a reflection of the current thought-process of the young Indian. They want to live in the present, enjoy in the present without much future planning. It may seem reckless on the face of it but it shows a couple of things – one, they are confident about the money flow in their future i.e. with respect to their careers and two, confidence in the Indian economy to outgrow any downturn and churn out high paying jobs. Coca Cola is the more sedate of the brands and its communication mirrors that. 

Pepsi has a slight upper hand in the coming summer due to its title sponsorship of the IPL and it will go all out to leverage this. Plus having MS Dhoni as its brand ambassador, arguably IPL’s Most Valuable Player over the last 5 IPLs, will catapult it over Coca Cola in the short run at least.