It's time to make a shift towards new creative models: PepsiCo's Shiv Singh

The sessions on the last day of Goafest focused on one of the most essential element in today’s advertising industry  i.e. ‘Creativity’. In his session themed- ‘Why no one cares about marketing’ Shiv Singh, Global Head of Digital, PepsiCo Beverages, spoke about the future of ads and how it should create a strong impact while also be part of the  culture.

Singh sharing his views said that  a brand should work on their plans while reaching out to their consumers whereby it will be  possible to  understand the latter’s   mindset  and also  know whether they ready to accept whatever the brand is trying to convey through their ads.

He also added that it’s important to get culturally involved and to explain this point further he said , “Our brand has cultural elements such as  music and is also an integral part of many large scale sports properties in various markets globally.” It’s important for brands to identify the cultural elements and utilise it in an efficient way through their social campaigns to grab attention.
Coming to the new medium that is social media, he said, “  Investing in social media will just help brands to think about new experiences rather than the advertising response”.

He made his session more interesting by sharing their recent Pepsi campaign. Expanding on his first idea  ‘Leave ads behind’,  he gave the example of a new video released by Pepsi featuring Beyonce. The brand has launched a 61-second preview video on social media with the hash tag #BeyHereNow, in which Beyonce previewed her new song ‘Grown Woman’.

“It was not just an ad for Pepsi, but a new lens into Beyonce. The visuals and lyrics were anchored in the culture of her past and her future. It was the start of a deep creative collaboration. When we think of ads in the future, it should not be restricted to a 20-second film. It should make a strong impact and be a part of the culture,” he said. 

He feels it is now time to think differently and move from making simple ads to short films that will help creating  curiosity amongst viewers socially.
His second idea was to ‘Think about experiences, not more ads’. He said digital data should be used to drive new business insights. “The insights you get from social (media) impact how you understand cultures, consumers, brands and products, and how you can predict sales and measure engagement.”

The third idea was ‘Bet on Facebook’. Singh stressed that the social network was here to stay, and pointed out that mere number of likes a brand has on Facebook is meaningless.
The next in line of his ideas was ‘Develop a 365-day culture’ . Here he stressed for the need of the brand’s presence when the customer is listening in all the 365 days of the year.
The last  point that Singh stressed on was to ‘Capitalise on the India opportunity’. He voiced the opinion that there was a lot of potential in India, especially in the mobile space. He observed that marketers will need to increase their investments in mobile to as much as half of their digital marketing budgets in the next four years.

Singh said that advertising needs to look at new forms of creativity in the present day scenario. In this regard  he said, “In this day and age, where the possibilities are limitless, as marketers and agency representatives, you should not look at increasing the marketing budgets but reducing it.”

While concluding an interesting session he shared about their new campaign where Pepsi India recently collaborated with a known young music band and came forth with one of its kind music concert which resulted in a huge response. He asserted that in coming years it will be interesting to watch the way Pepsi will work on the global marketing strategies and use the new media- social and mobile effectively in their campaigns.