How Pepsi is challenging the rum and Coke

Pepsi is taking on one of the most ingrained bar calls, arguing rum is better with Pepsi than with Coke.

The Rum and Pepsi promotion is the brand’s latest “Better with Pepsi” activation, which aims to promote Pepsi as an accompaniment to foods (and in this case, a drink), often casting itself as a challenger. Like some of the previous activations, ads will feature “hidden” Pepsi logos crafted by an origami artist—in this case, on the labels of cooler-soaked Bacardi and Captain Morgan rum bottles and on drink-moistened bar napkins. These logos will be the last of their kind as Pepsi begins a move to a new logo next month.

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The rum and Coke, sometimes called the Cuba Libre, has been a popular cocktail for more than 100 years. But Pepsi, citing its own research, said that 56% of consumers preferred Pepsi to Coke as a mixer with dark or spiced rum. (Light rum was not a focus of its work, a spokesperson said.)

“People said it makes the rum tastes more flavorful, more enjoyable,” said Todd Kaplan, Pepsi’s chief marketing officer, in an interview. People would recommend it, they would order it at a bar. Which is interesting because if you look at the way most people order it, they order it with the bar call—'rum and blank.’ It’s shocking to think everyone got it wrong.”

The rum brands did not have anything to do with the promotion, Kaplan said. 

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Pepsi will advertise the campaign primarily in print and out-of-home ads in the Atlanta, Los Angeles, Miami, New Orleans and New York City markets, in addition to social media platforms and search. The ads will run throughout August, which is National Rum Month. The brand worked with the creative agency Alma on the campaign.

Ads will accompany slogans such as “Is your rum OK?” and “Finally, the cola your rum has been asking for.”

The brand is also encouraging consumers to buy Pepsi with rum, offering customers of the online alcohol merchant Drizly up to $5 off on Pepsi when bought with rum throughout August, and free delivery with the code #BetterWithPepsi through August 17.

Kaplan said the “Better With” campaign—which has tackled fast food burgers, pizza and hot dogs in the past—has been a winner for Pepsi and will continue in the future.

“We look at a number of different metrics aside from just driving buzz. I’d say the most important thing we’re trying to drive is a metric we call situational salience, which is how often people will associate Pepsi with food at mealtime, unprompted,” Kaplan said. “We have moved the needle significantly on that metric—over 30 points in the last couple of years.

“Culturally speaking, we’d like to drive a discussion around rum and Pepsi, which, for us, it rolls off the tongue—for a lot of other people, maybe not as much,” he continued. “To really get people to almost elevate their consciousness when they’re ordering something, like, ‘Hey, I have a choice and I don’t have to settle for what they may or may not pour,’ and hold their beverage to a higher standard.”