A campaign to promote Pepsi Wild Cherry submitted by Fox won the inaugural Advanced Advertising Innovation Award for best use of branded content.
The award will be presented Nov. 18 at the Advanced Advertising Summit produced by Broadcasting+Cable parent Future plc. The winner for best overall campaign will be announced next week.
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To support the relaunch of Pepsi Wild Cherry, Fox and Pepsi created a new game show, Cherries Wild, with six half-hour episodes hosted by Jason Biggs.
The shows aired on Fox on Sunday nights following NASCAR from Feb. 21 through March 28.
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The Wild Cherry brand was integrated into game play and set design and the game was extended across linear, digital, social and mobile media.
As part of the program, a custom Cherries Wild interactive mobile gaming app was created, allowing viewers to play at home alongside show contestants in real time.
In each game a Wild Moment occurred and contestants received a bonus spin to win cash or wild cherries. The moment was called out by Biggs and Pepsi was featured in a branded lower-third graphic.
The Wild Moments invited viewers to play along in the app with the chance to win prizes ranging from $12,000 to $29,000.
Pepsi supported the partnership across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Some posts appeared on Jason Biggs’ handles. Fox and Pepsi also collaborated on public rleations. Biggs did 50 interviews, including six on national talk shows with a combined audience of 8.3 million viewers.
