How Does the Alternate World of Pepsi-Verse Create a High-Value Brand Space?

Gen Zs are an important target market for brands with a youthful and trendy positioning, and Pepsi takes a giant leap closer to this consumer demographic with the launch of Pepsi-verse. 

As a brand that has built up a reputation for being fun, edgy and adventurous, Pepsi now makes the timely move to the metaverse. Pepsi-verse is a sophisticated platform that provides a wide range of engaging content to engage its tech-savvy consumers, and they get to choose where and when they want to enter this world of alternative experiences.

“This campaign is intended to give Pepsi its own unique aspirational position that catapults us into our own lane,” says Dave Hartmann, Special Group’s strategy partner.  

Pepsi-verse is intended to target Gen Zs who are “restless, compassionate, woke and driven to move themselves and the world forward in the right ways”, says Dave. With that motivation, the creative direction to “strategically embrace the other way” was at the heart of the campaign, “and what’s more ‘the other way’ than an alternate universe?”

LBB finds out more from Special Group’s Dave, CCOs and partners Julian Schreiber and Tom Martin, digital director James Simmons, creative technologist Laurent Marcus, executive producer Paul Simmons; and The Glue Society’s directors Paul Bruty, Millicent Malcolm and Luke Nuto.

LBB> What was involved in creating Pepsi-verse? Do elaborate on the technological process and innovative initiatives.

Paul, Millicent & Luke> The Pepsi-verse was imagined as an escape from reality. But we wanted to be sure that this alternate universe was available to all,  so we quickly ruled out the idea of proprietary tech or existing solely within a VR space or metaverse. 

We had the idea that every Pepsi logo - everywhere in the world - could be a portal to the Pepsi-verse. So that everyone could enjoy it. Essentially the product becomes the key to unlocking this whole universe of possibilities. There are even some fun easter eggs to be discovered if you scan the can in certain locations - or even scan retro versions of the Pepsi logo. 

Tom & Julian> To create a successful parallel universe that people would believe in and want to spend time with, we had to make it credible. We had to come up with a set of rules and somewhat “logic” that defined what happens there and stay true to it. And above all things: giving it scale. The Pepsi-verse couldn't be contained in one or two online videos, it had to feel deep, infinite and always surprising. 

Working together as a writing room between Special Group and The Glue Society enabled us to ideate quickly and then create over 40 unique pieces of content to give life to the Pepsi-verse. We also wanted to provide more than just static content, so we leveraged Instagram and Snapchat Augmented Reality filters to provide immersive and interactive Pepsi-verse experiences to users, accessible only after opening a portal to the Pepsi-verse.

LBB> What were the challenges and highlights?

Paul> A challenge was creating an ecosystem of a campaign that hasn’t been done before - not only turning logos into portals, but creating a style of content that can easily be used to create never ending films and build the idea of a whole universe.

A highlight would be when our idea of turning a pipe filled with light rings and sliding a camera through it on a special rig actually looked like a portal to another universe. And as all our films were green screens, it wasn’t until we were on set and had backgrounds displayed on our monitors that we saw the complete picture of what we were filming which was also a real highlight. And of course having a client that was trusting and willing to push creative boundaries.

Tom & Julian> The conceptual phase of ‘Meanwhile in the Pepsi-verse’ threw up many challenges. For instance, we knew we were creating a parallel universe that demonstrated the power of the alternative but what subjects were we to use to make our comparison? Should they be serious crises like escalating house prices or global warming? Or actually should we create a fantastical world that is just like our own only better? To avoid the potential of trivialising serious issues we decided to take the latter path and began to populate our universe with alternatives to yawn-inducing convention. 

LBB> Can you talk us through the production of the TVC on location and in the studio? 

Paul, Millicent & Luke> This idea involved making lots of content. A universe is not a universe if it’s just a few ads. 

To make the budget stretch far enough to represent an entire universe, we went for an aesthetic and process that could work really efficiently. We love the humour and immediacy of obvious greenscreen, married with stock footage backdrops.

We had two green screens set up on rotation with a truck load of foreground elements. The background plates were pre-selected and mapped onto the live monitor during shooting so we could adjust the camera to the correct angle.

We were inspired by 360º camera footage of people flying down water slides for the portal. So we used practical effects and recreated the look with a big length of clear tube lined with strips of backlit blue, red and white stripes. 

James> Creatively, it was important to show the Pepsi-verse as  being multifaceted and diverse so we wanted to make as many films as possible. If we shot traditionally on location, the time and travel involved would have minimised our output so we had to think of a way of being able to shoot multiple spots within the shooting days we had. Working together with The Glue Society we realised that shooting on green screen in a studio and using stock footage for backgrounds would give us the time to shoot the number of executions we needed but creatively would also give the films a Pepsi-verse ‘look and feel’. 

LBB> What were the creative technologies utilised in the making of the TVC and the special considerations for it in the studio and in post?

Paul, Millicent & Luke> The Pepsi-verse is a place where the alternative way happens. It’s just like Earth, but slightly different. That means we wanted to create a unique look and feel that seemed otherworldly but situations that were still recognisable. To create a world with CGI in space or dramatic lighting and cinematography seemed obvious and lacking personality, which led us to the world of green screen. We were inspired by music videos where seemingly impossible things happen - people flying in the air, giant cats and that sort of thing. 

This led us to create situations based around these limitations of using stock footage backgrounds. We did extensive planning and storyboarding of camera angles and cast positions to make the scenarios work on the day. 

In addition to the TVCs, we created 25 pieces of film content that was housed in the Pepsi-verse when you scan and go through the portal. This series was created using entirely found stock footage, which led to some of our favourite work as we created scenes based off the footage we could find. A particular favourite was the pug with a human nose that can breathe properly. 

Paul> We shot on a green screen. This meant filming talent with key props and art department in a studio and keying in a pre-selected background. Much time was spent researching and finding the right footage for the backgrounds. 

Once these were agreed on, the art and wardrobe departments went to work to find props that would work tonally within the images. Care was taken to match the lens, angle and lighting of the stock shot with the green screen action so that the images would sit well together in post. 

LBB> In what way did the TVC push innovative boundaries?

Paul, Millicent & Luke> The idea was to make a TVC that felt more like internet content. The TV spots introduce the audience to the Pepsi-verse. But they are only the beginning of the journey. 

The real innovation comes with audience interaction. Once you’re aware that scanning any Pepsi logo in the world on your phone will  open different portals to the Pepsi-verse, you look at every product and poster differently. It’s no longer just a soft drink - it’s a portal to unique content and experiences - whether it be a 10-second piece of strange content from another dimension - or a physical happening in the real world. 

We’re just getting started with the Pepsi-verse, but the possibilities are endless in what it can become. 

Tom, Julian, Laurent & Toby> Now we had a handle on where the Pepsi-verse could play, we had to work out what form it would take. It was decided early on that we wanted people to be able to experience the Pepsi-verse for themselves but how was that going to work? Obviously this could only be done digitally. 

We toyed with QR Codes but they were ubiquitous in advertising after the pandemic. And it would require us putting the codes on all things Pepsi which would have been logistically difficult. No, we had to make the existing Pepsi logo a portal to the Pepsi-verse. So we produced an online Pepsi-verse scanner that allowed you to do just that. Once we solved the issue of reading the reflective logos on Pepsi cans, we were all benevolent smiles. I mean, creating wormholes into other worlds does give you a bit of a god-complex.

Indeed, creating a universe demanded never-ending content. Or at least the illusion of it. We had an efficient approach with the six initial TVCs by filming at the Glue studios using green screen. This gave the films a fresh internet-like quality, placing it somewhere between the real and the virtual. It felt appropriately otherworldly and screamed Gen Z.