Pepsi Max's Blippar football campaign achieves 2.4m interactions (plus the secrets to its success...)

Pepsi Max’s #FutbolNow Blippar campaign - which launched in the UK prior to the 2014 summer football season - received 2.4 million interactions from some 1.2 million consumers during its seven-month run last year.

Fans spent 50,000 hours engaging with Pepsi Max content via the Blippar app - the time equivalent of over 35,000 football matches, according to an impressive figure calculated by The Drum.

The campaign turned 242 million Pepsi Max, Pepsi and Diet Pepsi cans and bottles into exciting digital experiences which users unlocked by blipping packaging with their smartphones and tablets.

The Pepsi Max blipp featured an interactive, animated augmented reality football game starring popular international players including Robin van Persie, Jack Wilshere, Leo Messi and David Luiz.

Users could also watch exclusive football videos, behind-the-scenes footage and download an exclusive album, Pepsi Beats, which included Pepsi Max ambassador Janelle Monáe's version of David Bowie’s song Heroes.

Figures collated by Blippar for Pepsi Max show that cans and bottles featuring Argentinian player Leo Messi encouraged more interactions than any other (25%), and that most interactions took place in the afternoon, with 65% of blipps happening between 12pm and 9pm (see infographic below).

The campaign performed so well because Pepsi Max adhered religiously to the five key rules that ensure a Blippar campaign’s success: excellent interactive content…. appealing directly to their consumers… offered via a mix of different mediums…. with terrific user education… and outstanding promotion.

Scroll down below infographic for a more detailed breakdown of Pepsi Max's strategy.

Aman Matharu, digital marketing manager at Pepsi Max, said: ‘Our work with Blippar helped deliver to the fans an immersive digital experience with a simple swipe of their smartphones or tablets. This has moved our packaging from a vehicle for consumers to enjoy our soft drink to a prompt for them to engage with content in a technology-driven way – the results speak for themselves.’

Jonathan Barrowman, commercial director at Blippar added: ‘Pepsi Max is a fantastic brand, and football has universal appeal, so turning Pepsi products into digital channels was a very successful partnership. The football content on cans and bottles created a unique brand experience and delivered a new set of real world data insights for Pepsi.

Why did Pepsi Max's #FutbolNow Blippar campaign perform so well?

There are five main influencers to a Blippar campaign’s success. Here’s what they are:

Blipp content

Strong, relevant, entertaining content – like Pepsi’s football game and exclusive music album – drives user engagement, both in terms of numbers of interactions and length of dwell time.

Media mix

In the UK 242 million Pepsi Max, Pepsi and Diet Pepsi cans and bottles were transformed into exciting digital experiences which fans of the drink unlocked with their smartphones and tablets. There were also blippable signs at point-of-sale, meaning fans were even more likely to find the blipp.

User education

All Pepsi Max cans and bottles included a prominent two-step call-to-action (CTA) that anyone drinking from it could not fail to see. Clear CTAs are the best way of alerting users to the presence of your blipp.

Promotion

Both Blippar and Pepsi Max ensured the campaign received plenty of national media attention – which wasn’t too tricky considering it was launched around the time of the 2014 summer football season, when the whole attention of the globe was on anything football-related. (Being summer, people were also sure to be drinking a lot of chilled soft drinks…)

Consumer interest

One of the best ways of ensuring people interact with your blipps is by offering them something they love and feel passionate about. Pepsi Max already has a huge fan base, so when you add world famous football players, music downloads and mobile games, you’re onto a sure winner.