Watch above or read below.

Matthew Burns:
We’re back here with Steve on Sticky Sales Stories. And listen, guys, we did an episode recently on Kit Kat and their Little Breaks campaign, and it was such a good campaign, and then they ruined it. And Pepsi also did a campaign very, very, very similar, where they hid their logo in other people’s logos, but they did it specifically because they were kind of tired of always losing out to Coca-Cola at the restaurants.

So at the Burger Kings, at the Wendy’s, at the McDonald’s of the world, where their beverage was just being missed, they were missing sales. Anyway, they decided to run billboards in front of those restaurants where their logo was folded origami style into the wrapper or bag from that company. And then they took a picture of it, and they just put the words better with.

They didn’t say their name. They just had their logo, which was all folded. They never said their name, which I thought was brilliant because this is what we wanted from Kit Kat, which was to never, ever release the magic, just let it happen. They didn’t use their name, just their logo, fold it into… So again, fold it into, is it perfect? It’s not perfect. It’s close to perfect. And then they put a little circle around it. So we’ve been seeing this. Steve, is this a better use of that same mystery style?

Stephen Semple:
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Because I think the reason why I think it works is, first of all, the circle is the Pepsi logo. Because where they could have blown it would be the whole thing of, well, but people might not realize that’s the Pepsi logo.

Matthew Burns:
Yeah, better with Pepsi.

Stephen Semple:
Right. And oh, we got to put the Pepsi name in. They still left enough to this that somebody… There was still a little bit that needed to be figured out on it. And it was kind of fun, it was also a little bit tongue-in-cheek. The ones right next to McDonald’s.

Matthew Burns:
McDonald’s, Burger King. If they didn’t have a billboard that was close, they hired one of those mobile digital billboard companies. So the guy would drive into the parking lot.

Stephen Semple:
Oh my God, that’s hilarious.

Matthew Burns:
I saw one of Wendy’s like that, I mean, that’s bold and cheeky, like you said, which I thought was pretty good. And listen, Pepsi’s always been bold and cheeky. I mean, the Pepsi taste challenge, so that they always did it against Coke. But what I liked about this one is that they never brought up Coke in any of these. They never actually had to use their competitor’s name. I mean, we talked about this for Smirnoff screwed up recently, or not recently. We talked recently about how Smirnoff screwed up by bringing up their competitor’s name or referencing their competitor at all. Because all you’re doing is advertising your competitor, oh, if they’re that good that you have to go against them, then let me go try. This campaign did a really good job. And what I loved about this campaign was that they did it because they wanted to get their drinks into more restaurants.

They wanted to get Pepsi sold at more restaurants, and it ended up that way, and I can’t remember, maybe I’ll find it for the comments, but there were two or three or four restaurant chains that picked them up afterwards.

Stephen Semple:
Oh, is that right? Wow. That’s cool.

Matthew Burns:
That’s better than getting one person to go and buy a Pepsi. That’s so much better because that means that everybody who goes to that restaurant chain, if they really liked that restaurant chain, they were going to go and buy that drink. So it worked so well. But my favorite part is this, and I didn’t share this with you, and I held it because I wanted you to be a little bit surprised. They also did this because it worked so well for them. They had social media engagement that everything that they wanted from it, it worked so well that they decided to do it with alcohol brands. They went to Bacardi and…

Stephen Semple:
Oh my God. So instead of a rum and Coke…

Matthew Burns:
The campaign went from burgers are better with Pepsi to rum is better with Pepsi.

Stephen Semple:
Nice.

Matthew Burns:
But they used the same technique. They didn’t spell it out. They didn’t say rum is better with Pepsi. They just said better with… They had a Bacardi logo. They had a Captain Morgan logo and…

Stephen Semple:
Right.

Matthew Burns:
Folded their logo into that origami style. And here there’s a video, and we’re just going to play clips of it where this is years ago, this is like five, six years ago. And what they did was they then said, “Hey, the success of the campaign was so good that we’re going to show you behind the scenes of the folding of the origami.” They were really proud of how they made it work. I was blown away with their… It was very anti-Pepsi. It was not the way Pepsi did it. Pepsi even screwed up this year by doing an ad campaign with the polar bear from Coke. To me, that’s a screw-up. They’re bringing up their competitor. I think that’s wrong. You should never do it. Stand on your own. This campaign went against their competitor, which hurt them without ever mentioning them once.

So that made me feel really good because it was smart. It was tactful. They were patient. We talk about how advertisers aren’t patient. They want it now, and they let it play out. And then years down the road, they said, “Hey, and this is what we did.” They got to use other brands’ logos, which I thought was pretty… When you talk about brand equity, that’s a pretty smart play.

Stephen Semple:
Yeah.

Matthew Burns:
And then they put it in places where it actually hurt their direct competitor, which is Coca-Cola. Anyway.

Stephen Semple:
Yeah, it was brilliant. Really, brilliant. To me, the hard one, to crack… Look, they’re both hard to crack. You’re getting a chain to try to change who they’re carrying. But the other one is the rum one, just because it’s so much the lexicon of the language of rum and Coke.

Matthew Burns:
Oh, right. Well, and it was such a powerful movement that they actually had on social media, people going, “Yeah, I like Pepsi better.” So they have a Burger King cup, and somebody’s pouring their Pepsi into the burger.

Stephen Semple:
Oh my God, that’s great.

Matthew Burns:
Right? They had their McDonald’s, you could see their McDonald’s on the table, and then they had a bottle of Pepsi, one of the new shaped bottles of Pepsi on the thing. It got what they wanted, which is people saying, “I identify with you. ”

Stephen Semple:
Yeah. Cool.

Matthew Burns:
And that’s what good marketing is supposed to do. It’s supposed to allow the consumer to identify as, “Yeah, you’re my brand.” I mean, they had the ad budget to do it, so it was good, but they did it in spades.

Stephen Semple:
And here’s the other clever thing that they did that just dawned on me, which I like better with positioning, is if you’re a fan of McDonald’s, you like McDonald’s. Correct. So all they’re saying is your McDonald’s meal that you already like will be better. Your Bacardi that you already like will be better. So in other words, I’m actually partnering with the thing you already like and just saying, “Hey, I know you like this thing, and I love that you like this thing. We’re just going to make this thing you already love better.” There’s an interesting little deep piece of psychology there.

Matthew Burns:
Okay, but it also does one other thing. So yes, I’m honoring your likes and your loves.

Stephen Semple:
Yes.

Matthew Burns:
I love that. But you know what it also does is if you normally were drinking vodka and Coke… Or sorry, the rum and Coke. If you’re drinking rum and Coke already- If you’re drinking with Bacardi because Bacardi’s my drink and it says better with Bacardi, it’s a challenge, like game on.

Actually calling them out, saying like, “Hey, listen, if you normally drink it with Coke, you might as well try it with Pepsi because we believe it’s better with Pepsi.

Stephen Semple:
It might cause you to try it once. That’s very interesting, very interesting. But you know what vodka and Coke actually is? It’s an absolute Coke.

Matthew Burns:
It’s an absolute Coke reference. Pepsi, brilliant job. Guys, the campaign was brilliant. You guys did it right. You didn’t let go of the magic until you were much down the road, when everyone already knew what you were doing. Hats off, and we really appreciate what you guys did there because I can honestly say I’m not a big fan of all of your advertising. This campaign killed it, knocked it out of the park.

Stephen Semple:
Really good. Really, really good. And successful. Good for them.

Matthew Burns:
Sticky Sales Stories. Keep watching.

Latest posts by Sticky Sales Stories (see all)