You Won’t Believe the New Faces of the #PepsiMoji Ad Campaign

For decades, PepsiCo has used A-list celebrities as promotional faces for its beverages. Now, its newest brand idols are truly iconic because they’re actually digital icons. Yes, emojis are the latest star of the beverage brand’s #PepsiMoji ad campaign. PepsiCo plans to use these wordless digital faces on specially designed emoji cans and bottles distributed through more than 100 global markets. AdAge.com shared the details of this iconic new campaign.

Emojis continue to prove their popularity, with more than six billion emojis being sent by more than two billion smartphone users every day. Part of the beauty of emojis is how they use the language of emotion to bridge all language barriers, which makes them universally understood.

The widespread usage and global understanding of emojis inspired PepsiCo to start using the expressive faces on its Pepsi brand packaging in Canada, Russia, and Thailand last year. The success of this test led the company to implement the program’s current expansion on all Pepsi, Pepsi Max, and Diet Pepsi products to approximately 100 global markets this summer.

For its vastly expanded ad campaign, the company’s design and innovation center developed more than 70 uniquely global and local emojis for a wide range of target markets. The emojis will be printed on beverage cans, bottles, and cups worldwide. These images will be supported with copy explaining why both emojis and Pepsi products come in handy all over the world.

To support its creative product packaging, Pepsi will use digital and traditional advertising, along with product partnerships with various industries.

PepsiCo’s use of emojis on product packaging takes a page from Coca-Cola’s wildly successful Share-A-Coke promotion, which personalized products by featuring a person’s first name on product cans. Coca-Cola started its program in Australia in 2011 and its success led to its use in the U.S. during the last two summers.

By using emojis as the faces of its latest ad campaign, PepsiCo hopes to put both a smile on people’s faces and a Pepsi product in their hands.

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Written by Michael Del Gigante