Submitted by NewGen

Pepsi MAX at Wireless, Reading and Creamfields South

NewGen activated Pepsi MAX for PepsiCo across three UK music festivals with influencers and in-house production, reporting 47K+ impressions and +55K Twitter impressions.

+55KTwitter impressions
2K+engagements
47K+impressions

Case in 60 seconds

PepsiCo came to NewGen wanting to connect with creators and audiences at more key events through the summer, in a UK festival scene the page describes as iconic and crowded with the moments audiences already care about.

The campaign appears to turn on thirst as the one need a festival crowd shares, because a hot summer field makes a cold drink a reason to stop rather than an interruption, and stopping is what a creator moment requires.

Rather than advertising around the festivals, the work put Pepsi MAX physically inside them as a branded stop on the site, so the brand became part of the day audiences and creators were already having.

NewGen activated at Wireless, Reading and Creamfields South, working with influencers and its in-house production team on on-the-ground content, and invited influencers into the Pepsi MAX Tower as a pit stop for a sip and a selfie, with a TikTok post linked from the page.

NewGen reports 47K+ impressions, 2K+ engagements and +55K Twitter impressions from the activations, and describes the campaign as having left audiences thirsty for more.

Strategy Breakdown

The primary strategy-learning section — interpretation, not a press-release summary.

Festival goers at three of the largest UK music festivals, and the creators the page describes PepsiCo as wanting to connect with at key summer events.
The page positions UK festivals as the heart of UK culture, so a soft drink arriving there has to earn a place in a day audiences built themselves rather than buy attention around it, which is why the work took a physical stop on site.
Based on the available evidence, a carbonated soft drink has little claim on a music line-up, so Pepsi MAX led with thirst, which is the one thing a festival crowd reliably wants and the one thing the category can supply on the spot.
Pepsi MAX acted as the refreshment stop inside the festival day, with the Tower giving the brand a fixed address on site that attendees and influencers could visit rather than a message they passed.
The pairing of a sip and a selfie suggests a reading that people photograph themselves where they pause, so putting the brand at the point of pause puts it in the picture without asking anyone to make branded content.

Creative & Execution System

Assets & channels

  • TikTok
  • Twitter
  • on-the-ground content
  • selfies

Partners

  • NewGen (lead_agency)

Participation mechanic

  • Festival goers and invited influencers stopped at the Pepsi MAX Tower for a drink and a selfie, so attendance at the structure produced the photographs and content the campaign ran on.

Creator role

  • influencers

Results & Evidence

MetricValueResult type
Twitter impressions+55Kimpressions
engagements2K+engagements
impressions47K+impressions

The Work

TikTok@pepsimaxuk/video/7127943905714179334

Why NewGen's strategy worked

  1. 1

    A branded structure that answers a physical need at an event doubles as a content set, because attendees stop for the drink and creators get a reason to film that does not read as an advertising request.

  2. 2

    Pairing invited influencers with an in-house production team suggests a hedge against the coverage gaps of live events, since owned crews can capture the moments creators miss while creators carry the content into their own audiences.

  3. 3

    Running one activation across three festivals rather than one appears to spread a single build across separate audiences, which makes the fixed cost of a physical asset work harder over a summer.

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