Introduction/Background
PepsiCo Inc. is one of the world’s leading multinational corporations that distributes
snack foods, beverages and other products. Pepsi is responsible for producing Lays,
Tropicana, Gatorade, Doritos, Quaker, Cheetos and a number of other products.
PepsiCo was established when Pepsi-Cola and Frito-Lay merged. While it is a
successful and well-known company, it also resignates in many of the publics minds
as unhealthy food choices. PepsiCo was aware of this, so they launched a campaign
to turn their brand into a healthier brand in the public eye. In 2004, PepsiCo
introduced the Smart Spot symbol in the U.S., and then in 2005 they brought it to
Canada. This Smart Spot logo is an FDA- approved green logo, which helps
consumers quickly identify more than 100 of PepsiCo’s products that contribute to a
healthier lifestyle. The Smart Spot limits the amount of fat, cholesterol, sugar, and
sodium in these products. They also identify products that have more wholesome
ingredients, and have health/wellness benefits. (preparefood.scom) After creating
this symbol, PepsiCo needed to increase awareness of it, and the importance of
health and wellness to them. They had a number of different initiatives and
campaign plans to spread the word, but the one I found the most interesting was the
campaign that was targeted towards the African American and Latino communities.
PepsiCo did research, and saw that obesity among minority populations had
reached new heights. Cultural factors related to dietary choices, physical activity
and excess weight acceptance among African Americans and Latinos were shown to
have a large role in restricting weight loss efforts. (PR News, 2008) PepsiCo decided
to create the “Smart Spot Dance!” initiative, which targeted these minority groups
and included dancing as an important part of the healthy lifestyle message they
wanted to convey. The goal for PepsiCo was to educate the public about their Smart
Spot symbol, and also establish credibility on health issues. They partnered with
Clifford/Bratskeir Public Relations, National Urban League, National Council of La
Raza, America on the Move, and the YMCA to execute their campaign, and to make
this a success.
Analysis of Client’s Problems/SWOT
Strengths

PepsiCo created the Smart Spot logo which was FDA-approved, and gives
consumers a quick and easy way to see which products are healthier

They have partnered with a number of different organizations that can back
up their credibility, and help prove to the public that health/wellness
actually is important to them

Chose a multicultural team to help them construct, execute and implement
their messages with lasting effects to the minority populations

Partnered with three celebrities whose messages of health/wellness align
with the messages PepsiCo wanted to convey
Weaknesses
Opportunities

While it was well-known that obesity was a large problem in minority
groups, PepsiCo created a unique message and campaign to reach the groups
better than other companies
Threats
Research
PepsiCo used both primary and secondary research to prepare for their
campaign and understand what was necessary to be successful. They found out
from the Center for Disease Control that obesity was affecting African American
and Latino communities the hardest, which is what led them to chose their
target audience. Research showed them that the minority groups culture, diet
choices, amount of physical activity, and excess weight acceptance was creating
this obesity problem. After they found out who they should be targeting, they
funded a survey by America on the Move (one of their partners in this initiative,
a national organization that provides practical weight management solutions)
that showed that dancing was more effective than walking. This primary
research showed that dancing can almost double the amount of physical activity
achieved in the same amount of time that walking does. (PR NewsWire) PepsiCo
saw that they could include dancing as a way to a healthier lifestyle, since
dancing is a fun and entertaining way to increase exercise. Using this research,
they constructed the “Smart Spot Dance!” initiative, which was a fun way for
families to lead more healthy lifestyles. It was an instructional dance program,
that promotes dance as a way to get active and fight obesity. They conducted
more research, to see who would be good spokespeople for the event. They
chose Mario Lopez, LaChanze,

Partnered with Clifford/Bratskier- multicultural

Inform communities that dancing was a way to stay healthy

Secondary- found that no other large company was working with these
minority groups, even though it was a known issue. Created these unique
events to separate themselves from these companies, and target the groups
Message
PepsiCo is one of the world’s largest food and beverage companies, and they wanted
be shown as a healthier brand. They began their re-branding by creating the Smart
Spot logo which was discussed before, which allowed people to quickly chose which
PepsiCo food and beverage items were healthier. PepsiCo wanted to increase
awareness of this logo, as well as their commitment to health/wellness. They
wanted their message to be that they were advocates of health and wellness, and
were working hard to make our nation healthier and fight obesity. The specific
message for “Smart Spot Dance!” was to encourage dance, as a form of exercise, as
an effective and culturally relevant way to lead a more active lifestyle. (PepsiCo)
Audience
PepsiCo wanted to increase awareness of their logo for everyone, but for this
specific Smart Spot Dance! initiative, they had a very specific target audience. From
their research they saw that obesity was effecting African American and Latino
minority groups in large proportions, so they targeted these groups. From there,
PepsiCo and the team of multicultural experts even further targeted their audience
by choosing African American and Latino moms as the real target audience. Since
mothers are seen as the gatekeepers of the household purchasing decisions, they
saw this as being the most effective target audience. They saw that informing the
gatekeepers of the household on ways to live a healthier lifestyle was important, and
would impact the most change.
Strategic Plan
After researching, they began their campaign by setting their goals and objectives.
The company turned to PR to make these goals and objectives a reality, and they
partnered with Clifford/Bratskeir Public Relations. Bratskeir had to educate
consumers and media about PepsiCo’s healthy Smart Spot products, and also
establish PepsiCo’s credibility for health/wellness issues. To establish these end
goals, Clifford/Bratskeir Public Relations developed the “Smart Spot Dance”
initiative, which is a dance program that offered a fun way for families, especially
moms, to lead health, more active lifestyles. (Bratskeir) The main goal of this
specific initiative was to educate multicultural moms about the importance of
nutrition education through their Smart Spot products, as well as the use of dance as
a form of exercise. They wanted to make this program a sustainable venture with
opportunities for consumers (moms) to continue to learn about health. (PR News)
They used a number of tactics, strategies, and objectives to get to this main goal.
Behavior Goals:

Drive traffic to the Smart Spot Web site

Drive consumers (African American and Latino moms) to the SSD (Smart
Spot Dance) events

Have these consumers purchase DVDs
Awareness/Comprehension Goals:

Reach more than 3,000 African American and Latino moms via events, DVDS,
and surveys

Generate more than 50 million general market consumer media impressions

Generate more than 20 million urban market consumer media impressions
Strategies:
PepsiCo needed a way for consumers to view them as more credible, and also to
actually enact change in these minority groups. The way they saw they could do this
was by using the strategy of engaging the consumers with their brand and educating
them about their initiative. By creating these dance events throughout the nation,
consumers could come out and actively engage with the brand and the celebrities
that the brand chose.
Another strategy that they used was creating this unique initiative. Other national
companies knew that obesity was a large problem in these minority groups, but
none had targeted them in a way that PepsiCo planned to. They saw that they would
be the first national consumer brand to initiate a unique program like this, and they
ran with it. They had to break into a new audience for this strategy, so they hired a
firm with a multicultural team to make this strategy a success. Lynn Markley, VP of
communications for PepsiCo said “We needed a smart firm with a multicultural
team who could understand how to get the message into these communities.” (PR
News) By hiring a firm that knew how to effectively target minority groups, this
strategy was able to be a success.
Another strategy that they used was partnering with organizations to help their
credibility. They partnered with YMCA, the National Urban League and the National
Council of La Raza to help their initiative. By partnering with these organizations,
they were able to recruit participants to the events they held as well as make sure
that their message was going to the correct target audience.
Tactics
To reach the goals that Clifford/Bratskeir and PepsiCo created, they used a number
of different tactics. One important tactic they used first was contacting and
educating the media about the Smart Spot logo. They conducted meetings with food,
health, parenting and lifestyle editors to lay out their plan and initiative. In these
meetings, they described their Smart Spot logo, which helps consumers make small
changes when making product choices to become healthier. They used these
meetings to highlight the products that have the logo, explain what the logo is, and
also introduce PepsiCo resources/experts. By first explaining to the media what the
logo was in the first place, they could then move on to introducing the SSD initiative.
They
The next tactic they used was launching the Smart Spot instructional dance
program. To make this program more popular, and more credible, they put together
a team of relevant celebrities, dancers and dieticians. This group of people would go
on a tour to different cities, and promote the logo and the dancing initiative. For this
tactic, they got Mario Lopez from Dancing with the Stars, Tony Award-winner
LaChanze, and Broadway choreographer Maria Torres. These individuals served as
the programs spokespersons. They were chosen because of their strong background
in dance and also would be able to illustrate the cultural relevance of the SSD
program. (PR News)
Other tactics that were created to help reach their goal were:

Developing a microsite to track the SSD tour and include videos of
participants dancing from each event

Celebrity blog and dance videos that could be uploaded directly to the site by
consumers

A bilingual dance workout DVD was created featuring Maria Torres and
mothers from the African American and Latino communities. They handed
out these DVDs during events in the different cities, and it was also available
on the web site for consumers who couldn’t attend the events

Produced a “dance-umentary” which featured real people who were dancing
their way to a healthier life
Planning and Programing
To reach their goals, PepsiCo and Clifford/ Bratskeir began planning their events.
Before hand, they began working with national partner local affiliates, which
allowed them to find media partners that would buy advertising to promote events.
They held meetings with different outlets to inform the outlets and spread the SSD
initiative and message.
They laid out their timeline and events, and made sure that all the celebrities and
team had schedules that worked for them. The managing director of
Clifford/Bratskeir, Mike Rosen said: “We had to coordinate so many schedules. We
were doing events at multiple cities throughout the year. We needed to make sure
that everyone’s schedules worked together.” (PR news online)
While they were planning, they had to think about how their efforts would be
sustainable. It would be easy to come with their dance events, and not impact
change since it was only a one-day event. This is when they came up with the tactic
of the DVD. People could leave from the event with a DVD with which they could
continue to live a healthy lifestyle through dance. Most of the dance events were
held at YMCA’s, which they saw to have minimal funding, so they saw that people
could base dance classes on the DVDS, or moms could take them home and play
them after the events. (PR News) People who weren’t able to make the events could
also buy it afterwards, or download it online.
The team spent a lot of time working with the YMCA’s before the events, to make
sure that they were engaged and invested. They planned their events and initiatives,
and worked with this organization to make sure that their partnership benefited
both of them and that the YMCA was happy that it was their program was well.
After planning the schedules, how to leave a lasting impact, who the spokespersons
should be, and what their overall message/goal was the team constructed the actual
events. The Smart Spot Dance initiative would be a number of different events,
throughout a number of different cities. The team of celebrities would travel to
Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, St. Louis, Washington D.C., and NYC. The event kick off
would be in NYC on March 14th, at a YMCA. They decided to travel to these local
markets to make relationships with the organizations, and then in turn attendance
would increase and they could benefit from the SSD initative.
Execution
The events from the SSD initiative finished in Washington, DC on October 1st. At
each event, either Mario Lopez or LaChanze joined the famous choreographer Maria
Torres in a easy-to-follow dance routine. This routine taught the communities they
were visiting recent dance moves, while the spokespersons led it. During the event,
dieticians attended and gave participants advice on how to eat healthier and also
how to be more active. After the event, each participant received a DVD of the
routine that they had learned, and also a pedometer to track the amount of daily
steps they take. Each event was also videotaped and participants could visit the
website smartspot.com to see themselves or whoever else attended learning the
dance moves. The website was a bilingual site, and it also included diaries from
Mario Lopez and LaChanze as they documented the different events that they
attended. The website had a number of different other features, like the ability to
download the dance routine, Latin and R&B music that individuals could download,
people could upload their own dance videos, and also there was the ability to vote
for your favorite dance and then each month the Top 10 dance videos were featured.
Results
Overall, the planning, programming, tactics, strategies, and objectives led the Smart
Spot Dance Initiative to be a success. They surpassed all of the original goals that
they had set forth.

Nearly 2,000 people attended the SSD events

Distribution of more than 8,000 dance workout DVDS

SSD initiative reached more than 11,000 consumers (277% increase over the
goal)

SSD initiative had more than 230 million general market consumer media
impressions (360% increase over goal)

29 million urban market consumer media impressions (goal was 20 million)

The average monthly visitors to the Smart Spot Web Site from April-August
2007 were 6,000
(PR News)
Evaluation
Theories and Persuasion Used
The theory that I saw to have the most play in the PepsiCo Smart Spot Dance
initiative was agenda-setting. Agenda- setting is when the media influences what the
public thinks is important, by giving information and making the public aware of the
issues or topics at hand. To structure this initiative, the team used specific media
like food, health, parenting and lifestyle media editors to get the message out to
these audiences. Since the team exceeded its goal media impressions, it was clear
that this initiative was highly present in the public eye, therefore agenda-setting was
at play. The media set the agenda on what individuals should be thinking about, and
in this case it was the Smart Spot Dance initiative.
Analysis of co. media relations
Collateral used
Analysis of media coverage
Current status of issue
The Smart Spot Dance Initiative was a one-year initiative in regards to the events.
The events featuring the celebrities in the different cities began and ended in 2007.
This was when the Smart Spot logo was relatively new, so this initiative helped
bring light to what it was and what PepsiCo was trying to do. Even though the
initiative was ended in 2007, people still had DVDs and the health information that
PepsiCo had provided them. The logo also showed them which products would help
them live healthier lives.
Even though this initiative was only one year long, PepsiCo still is concerned with
helping people live healthier lives. They have run a number of different campaigns
since this one. If you visit PepsiCo.com and go to the tab “What We Believe”, you can
see that they didn’t stop there on the quest to be known as a healthier brand and
impact change. The first paragraph states: “As a leading food and beverage
company, we believe we can play an important role in helping people lead healthier
lives. In fact, PepsiCo is taking aggressive steps to implement many of the actions
recommended by the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Global Action Plan…”
(PepsiCo, 2014)
Some of the ways that PepsiCo has continued to make a difference are:

PepsiCo’s Chairman and CEO is the chair of the Healthy Weight Commitment
Foundation, which has been working to help reduce obesity in the U.S.

Since 2009, PepsiCo and the PepsiCo Foundation has contributed a total of
$4.5 million to support the Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation’s
programs

PepsiCo’s Food for Good initiative is a social enterprise within the company
that uses sustainable business models to make nutrition accessible for lowincome families

Supports an Edible Teaching Garden and Culinary Arts Program in Los
Angeles, CA, which teaches Mexican and Mexican-American children about
the nutritional value of fruits and vegetables. Daily food and nutrition classes
are provided to many children living under the poverty line

PepsiCo also supports Save the Children, which fights to combat childhood
obesity in the U.S.
Also, one that I found interesting that was similar to the Smart Spot Dance initiative
was a campaign in 2012. PepsiCo signed a partnership with the Asian Football
Development Project to encourage people across Asia, particularly women and
children to stay active and to play a greater role in society through a range of
football-focused activities. This reminded me of the Smart Spot Dance initiative
because again they were targeting a different group, this time not even in the U.S., so
I’m sure they had to use a multi-cultural firm again. They also targeted women
again, as well as young children. Even though this campaign was about playing a
greater role in society, it still had the same underlying tones.
Comparison to similar cases
-case study in diversity paper
-case study on healthy eating
-failed case study
Analysis of “lessons learned”
Personal Opinion
Professional PR opinion
https://www.niehs.nih.gov/news/assets/docs_p_z/summary_informationtaaff
e_508.pdf