Winner: OMD - PepsiCo Game Day Grub Match
Game Day Grub Match was born out of a need to drive awareness for PepsiCo’s broad and diverse portfolio, showing opinion elites and general market consumers that PepsiCo extends far beyond Pepsi.
The first Game Day Grub Match— launched in 2015 leading up to Super Bowl 49—challenged students from the famed Culinary Institute of America to create the ultimate game day dish. The twist? Dishes needed to incorporate PepsiCo snacks and drinks as ingredients.
A production company captured the competition, which was hosted by celebrity chef Anne Burrell and ran as a video series on PepsiCo’s owned channels. Additionally, following the series, PepsiCo invited consumers at home to share their own game day recipes on Instagram.
This year, OMD/Pepsi partnered with Tastemade, the leading food network on YouTube, to bring Game Day Grub Match to life in a fun and engaging way. To create a more entertaining storyline and increase the relevance of the competition, the partners tapped Tastemade’s social influencers as the main characters of the competition. Additionally, the team utilized HelloSociety and their network of social influencers to extend Game Day Grub Match to fans at home for a chance to win a variety of prizes.
Game Day Grub Match resulted in over 250,000 digital engagements and many innovative, out-of-the-box dishes sourced from Culinary Institute of America students, social influencers and foodies at home. Dishes included Pepsi-glazed chicken wings, empanadas made with Sabra hummus dough and meatballs breaded with Tostitos. The campaign drove substantial increases across key metrics including awareness, engagement, affinity and purchase intent.
In addition, consumer contest participation increased by an impressive 552% from 2015, with 443 uses of the #GameDayGrubMatchEntry hashtag.
Honorable Mentions:
- Adobe - Empowering Today’s Digital Marketers with Leading Adobe Reports and Actionable Data
- Booz Allen Hamilton - Keep What You've Earned
- FCB Chicago - Boeing's Innovation Film Series