Marketing in the news blog-AC

 After going over a couple of reliable sources online and researching some of the most recent popular advertisements, I came across one that seemed to stand out to me because I had actually seen it within the past month or two which was about Pepsi's new soft drink called "Starry" . That being said, my roommates and I tend to watch a lot of sports on ESPN including the NBA, NFL, MLB, etc, and when we were watching the NBA All-star game we happened to see plenty of sponsorship within the NBA as well as commercials introducing the soft drink "Starry". When we all first saw the sponsorships and commercials we couldn't help but to ask ourselves what that even was and if it was supposed to be a replacement for another soda currently.    

    Pepsi Co has been the official food and beverage partner of professional basketball since 2015 with Mtn dew being the focus of their soft drink front, however now hope to have new Starry stepping up to offer a "fresh perspective" and enhance fan and game experiences. They also hope to have this new lemon-lime offering replace laggard in Current Sierra Mist soda.

    Pepsi Co's value proposition is said to be as " Create more smiles with every sip and every bite by being the best possible partner, driving game-changing innovation, and delivering a level of growth unmatched in our industry."

    Furthermore, Pepsi Co used the 2023 NBA All-Star weekend that's held in Salt Lake City, Utah, as well as events like the Starry 3-point contest and NBA Crossover, to familiarize the public with Starry and also strengthen an association with basketball. In other words, this was a method of introducing a new product being launched for the company Pepsi. This is important because although they may have seemed like just your normal advertisements/commercials for a new drink, Pepsi also used a very effective strategy of marketing which is called Celebrity Branding by having most of the athletes playing drink Starry to rehydrate on Live TV.

    In addition, from the article we can see that one of the main challenges Pepsi is facing in the launch of Starry is of course with one of it's biggest competitor's Coke and it's Sprite lemon-lime soda. They are also facing the challenge of trying to make it better than their current sierra mist soda, which seems to not be doing so well currently when looked at against Sprite. On the other hand, PepsiCo has put on a heavy marketing muscle behind the beverage as it looks to get an edge on it's competitor Sprite and win over Gen Z Consumers.

    Overall, I would say that this was probably one of the best possible ways that PepsiCo could've introduced a product into the market(for it to gain awareness) because not only did they just use normal TV advertisements, but they also utilized celebrity branding by being the title sponsors of NBA's major All-star weekend. This is important because with all the millions of viewers around the world watching the NBA's All Star weekend, PepsiCo should be confident that they reached a good majority of their target audience by using these marketing strategies.

One thing that I would probably have chosen to do differently if I were the brand/product manager would probably have been to maybe run a promotion exclusively for anyone who is attending the NBA All Star weekend and allow them to purchase a buy one get one half off of that specific beverage only during the event.

In conclusion, one of my most important takeaways from this assignment would be how you can use such a major sporting event and celebrities to your advantage in the launching of a new product and making the public familiar with it as it will have a very large amount of viewers.

https://www.marketingdive.com/news/pepsico-starry-NBA-marketing-sponsor-all-star-weekend/641733/