LONDON (Brand Republic) - The Pepsi-Cola Company is to premiere its new commercial, starring Britney Spears, online at Yahoo.com on Sunday, two hours before its broadcast debut during the Academy Awards.
This is the first time Pepsi-Cola has premiered an ad online. Pepsi has also bought all the media available on Yahoo’s homepage during the weekend of the Academy Awards, marking the first time that a company has been the exclusive advertiser on the homepage.
The ad is set in a Pepsi bottling plant and features Britney Spears singing the Joy of Pepsi song. It was created by BBDO New York and directed by Joe Pytka, and is part of Spears’ global sponsorship and advertising pact with Pepsi-Cola, which includes co-sponsorship of her upcoming tour.
The premiere is underpinned by other online marketing activities at Yahoo!, including behind-the-scenes footage of the shoot, a 15-second “teaser” spot, and a sweepstakes competition for autographed items. The company is using Yahoo’s new larger-sized interactive banners to promote the campaign.
The alliance is an example of Yahoo!’s Marketing Fusion programme, which is designed to provide leading offline brands with a one-stop shop for online marketing.
It is the third time that Pepsi-Cola has used the programme -- the first was an online promotion called Pepsi-Stuff.com, and the second initiative invited users to vote for their favourite Pepsi commercial to be aired after a pro-football championship game.
Yahoo! recently reported its first-quarter earnings would fall short of forecasts because of disappointing advertising revenue. However, some experts were optimistic about the company’s future and pointed to its interactive marketing schemes, such as the Marketing Fusion programme, as the basis for its ongoing success.
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