Marketers usually see Ramadan for the beverage industry within the scope of El Classico, the long-going battle between the industry’s biggest champions, Pepsi vs Coca Cola. However, Pepsi’s 7Up is fighting to make its way to the big stage with their Ramadan 2019 ad.
7Up hits it out of the park this year with one of the more memorable ads of the season, featuring Ahmed Fahmy as various styles of singers/rappers to show the drink’s versatility.
Ahmed Fahmy is a great choice as a character actor, bringing to life several personalities that make Egyptians laugh and smile during the ad. It’s catchy, memorable for the right reasons and is random enough to break through the Ramadan clutter.
Yet, 7UP’s ad leaves many questions unanswered while PepsiCo’s flagship has us saying one thing.
Where is Fido Dido?
Before Ramadan, 7UP launched a massive campaign for PepsiCo’s 90th anniversary which included the lime drink’s classic but retired mascot, Fido Dido.
Fido Dido was one of the most iconic brand mascots/characters of the 90s and 2000s, creating some of the more fantastical ads of those years. So, when 7UP decided to revive Fido this year, they did so aggressively.
Since the announcement and return, PepsiCo has been reintroducing the character almost everywhere you turned, Fido dominated streets in an aggressive OOH campaign right before Ramadan as well as appearing on newly manufactured bottles. But, after all the determination and budget to revive him, where is he now?
Fido does not appear once in 7UP’s Ramadan ad, not mentioned nor even acknowledged to through the product placements.
What was the point of Fido’s giant push to reintegrate to their packaging and overall branding before Ramadan, if they wouldn’t put him on the biggest spotlight of the year?
Are they keeping him on the side for AFCON? We’re excited to see Fido back on the small and digital screen, but looks like we have to wait a little longer before that happens.
7UP vs Pepsi
Although we are disappointed that Fido Dido did not make it to this year’s ad superbowl, we’re still surprised at how 7UP usurped PepsiCo’s flagship drink. 7UP dominated the beverage side this year.
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As we can see, 7UP beats Pepsi’s ad on the Facebook interactions of Love, Haha and Wow. These 3 provide us with insight that the ad is being received as positive, compared to the more neutral Like.
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On Facebook and YouTube combined views, 7UP was viewed 2.8M times more than Pepsi’s ad; Pepsi was watched 9M+ times while 7UP was viewed over 11.8M times.
*Data grabbed on May 30, 3PM
Did Pepsi Got Robbed?
Not only did Pepsi get run over by 7UP’s more popular ad this year, but the flagship drink also, possibly, got robbed by its agency this year!
This year’s ad disappointed many who were looking forward to another year where the beverage company would release another ad clutter breaking campaign. Sadly, for those that knew Pepsi’s choice of agency for this year, they were more than disappointed.
Peacecake, the media house behind this year’s nostalgic campaign, is known within the industry for creating parodies and comedic skits on their free time and it was one of those skits that is getting them in trouble this year.
Look familiar? This Peacecake skit was released on June 2017, and it’s pretty easy to see many of the similarities from the main concept to even the look and feel of some of the shots. You can even see one of Peacecake’s team in both ads making a M. Night Shyamalan-like appearance.
Not only did Peacecake sell a content idea they already created and published, it also looks like Pepsi is losing its creative edge.
Whether they did not do their homework before agreeing to the project, or if they knew beforehand that they were going to produce a second-hand idea, Pepsi this year disappointed many marketers and consumers with an ad that was several levels of quality lower than those in the last few years.
What do you think about 7UP’s win over Pepsi, deserved? What about Peacecake and Pepsi, should Pepsi have done something else or stick to their current Ramadan ad?