SONY, PEPSI IN MAJOR CROSS-PROMOTION PLAN
Top of the pops, meet top of the pops. Today, Sony Music Entertainment Chairman/CEO Thomas D. Mottola and Pepsi-Cola North America President Dawn Hudson announced plans for a global marketing campaign that will combine the joy of hit Sony music with the Joy of Pepsi.
Beginning next summer in the U.S., national radio ads for Pepsi brands will feature "sneak previews" of songs from Sony artists, while a number of Pepsi-sponsored television specials showcasing Sony artists will also be produced. Co-branded sales initiatives will also be brought to non-music retail outlets, in a bid to expand Sony’s distribution platform while hooking in more Pepsi customers with neat-o music offers.
Outside the U.S., the co-branding effort will leverage Pepsi’s youth-market strength and Sony’s music-market muscle. Marketing efforts will focus on tying both established and new Sony artists to Pepsi throughout the world.
"Pepsi’s long track record of successfully blending music with their message made the company the natural choice for this one-of-a-kind co-branding campaign," commented Mottola, carefully avoiding that little matter of Michael Jackson’s hair fire from so many years ago. "I have every confidence that the three-part strategy of early awareness through radio exposure, maximum exposure through television specials and superior point-of-purchase placement at non-music retail outlets will give our releases and artists a significant advantage in the North American marketplace.
"Internationally, SME and Pepsi already have joined forces on Shakira’s worldwide concert tour, and we look forward to expanding the effort to include a broad array of established and emerging artists, while continuing to protect Shakira’s long, blonde locks from the dangers of fire."
"Nothing connects with young people like music," said Hudson. "And with its dedicated focus on developing the very best artists from around the world, no one is better suited to help us intensify that connection than Sony Music."
