As the next round of group stage UEFA Champions League games kick-off, Lay’s is rolling out an integrated ‘Cheer Of Champions’ fan engagement campaign that encourages and enables supporters across Europe to show their support for their chosen team.
At the heart of the initiative, Lay’s is introducing a new range of ‘Cheer For Your Favourite’ crisp packs across multiple European countries including Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Spain and Sweden.
In addition to on-pack, in-store, point-of-sale retail work pushing this new Cheer range, the engagement campaign and support encouragement platform spans PR, experiential work, ATL advertising, digital out of home, digital and, as a key strand of its social activation, a unique Snapchat lens.
The unique Lay’s SnapChat lens allows participants to select an animated version of Lay’s new crisp pack-designs to match their team’s shirt colour.
This lens layers the effects to give the impression that each participant is wearing his or her team’s shirt set against the backdrop of a crowded football stadium.
It also offers fans a chance to add further animations to their support image – such as beards, brows and face paint – before taking a selfie and then uploading the picture to social media in order to be in with the chance of winning UEFA Champions League prizes.
Indeed, Lay’s encourages all fans to simply keep a pack of Lays coupon’s in front of your face, take a picture and upload it to https://game-ready.com/cheers.
The initiative is also being supported by a social spot – posted on Lay’s social channels on 23 September – which mimics the Lay’s SnapChat lens and shows unsuspecting shoppers having fun with an augmented reality, interactive screen in a Madrid shopping centre.
This enables shoppers passing by the touch-screen DOOH unit to choose Lay’s potato flavour, start cheering and create funny, football themed ‘Cheer of Champions’ selfies for social sharing.
The work is being produced by an IPG collective called Team United, while Grand Visual created and built the interactive AR digital 6 sheet which was fitted with a custom touch-screen hardware build, including facial recognition technology, real-time motion tracking and augmented reality software, to enable the layering of ‘facial effects’.
The mall AR interactive screen based stunt, planned and booked by Talon and OMD International, was captured in a video that is shared on Lay’s’ International Facebook and YouTube channels.
While on the initiative’s microsite (https://www.game-ready.com/) consumers can also enter the daily prize draw with rewards ranging from Champions League tickets to PS4s with Konami’s Pro Evolution Soccer game and UEFA Champions League footballs.
A striking outdoor activation strand sees Lay’s enable supporters to see their cheers celebrated in lights with a digital mosaic projection event of all of the consumer campaign selfies in Eindhoven (The Netherlands) on 1 November and Madrid (Spain) on 2 November.
‘We have created an exciting campaign to bring our Lay’s “cheer for your favourite” packs to life and engage fans in an entertaining and eventful way,’’ outlines PepsiCo UEFA Champions League sponsorship head Adam Warner.
‘We are harnessing the excitement and passion of the UEFA Champions League to create a fun and memorable campaign.’
‘DOOH is the perfect platform for bringing our popular Lay’s Cheering bags activity to Out of Home audiences, in a fun, accessible and memorable way,’ added PepsiCo’s Aman Matharu.
‘We have also tapped into the most popular mobile app of the moment whilst harnessing the excitement and anticipation for Europe’s most revered sporting event, is a great way of driving relevance and buzz, whilst creating assets that can extend the life of the campaign online.’
Comment
By blending the very much on-trend Snapchat Lens feature with the personal and engaging experience of DOOH, Lay’s is clearly hoping to get people, especially younger fans, interacting through fun and social sharebility.
It may well bring out the lighter side of football fandom rather than tapping in to more deeply held supporter passions.
PepsiCo, which generated more than $63bn across its huge range of brands in 2015, signed a three-year Champions League partnership with UEFA in June last year.
As well as Lay’s, this deal includes Walkers, Pepsi MAX and Gatorade, as well as Doritos, Lipton and 7UP at the forefront of the partnership.
‘With more than a billion football fans watching the matches every season, this new partnership offers unprecedented opportunities for both parties,’ said PepsiCo Europe CEO Ramon Laguarta when the deal was penned.
‘UEFA Champions League fans can expect some fantastic new experiences from Lay’s, Gatorade and Pepsi MAX as we head into the 2015/16 season’.
This UEFA Champions League partnership adds to a PepsiCo sponsorship portfolio that also includes the National Basketball Association, National Football League, National Hockey League, Major League Baseball, Indian Premier League and International Cricket Council.
This deal also enables Pepsi to go head-to-head in the international football activation space with fierce rival Coca-Cola – which has a long-standing partnership with football’s global governing body FIFA and thus is an official partner of the World Cup.
Links
PepsiCo/Lay’s game Ready Web:
www.game-ready.com/cheers
Lay’s YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/user/Lays
Lay’s Twitter:
Lay’s Web:
Lay’s Facebook:
Lay’s Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/lays
UEFA Champions League:
http://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/
PepsiCo Web:
