CONCEPTs • ART DIRECTION • SHOOT DIRECTION
After the success of the Pepsi Max social content, one of the next Pepsico brands to move away from static sites and into social engagement was 7up. With a focus on clean tasting zingy refreshment, the content was designed to hero the product and make it look as appealing as possible.
Some of the creative concepts took route in static print routes. Based on two Photoshop composited posters related to a TVC, the social content for the Summer Your Way campaign sought to bring those posters to life by recreating the action in reality. For the beach splash concept, a large glass water tank was constructed and filled with a sandy beach foreground and a blue sky and turquoise sea backdrop that when viewed through the camera looked like a real beach setting.
A steep chute was created that fed in from behind the backdrop, smoothly curving underneath the vista to the rear of the beach. When a large bucket of water was dropped down the chute, it created the effect of a wave splashing over the beach and products. Filmed at high speed for the ultimate slo mo finish, it took many attempts and resets to capture the perfect wave!
Bringing to life the second poster, the POV from the bottom of an ice bucket of a hand plunging in to retrieve a can of 7Up free was no less a demanding setup. The glass tank was repurposed from the beach setup and filled with water, around 50 kilos of ice cubes and a smattering of sliced citrus fruit.
The camera was then placed under the tank pointing up through the water at the sky backdrop. The addition of the product proved an unanticipated challenge as full cans and bottles sink, but empty product is too bouyant and see through bottles show there's nothing inside and ruin the illusion. Through trial and error the products were tested with enough liquid inside to achieve neutral bouyancy and sit just below the surface. Then all that was required was for our hand to grab the drink from water that, by that point was so cold felt like dipping your arm in liquid fire.
Thankfully other concepts were far easier to execute as what the camera can't see doesn't count. A simple backdrop, offcuts of kitchen worktop and an office plant blown by a desk fan and hey presto, the perfect serve outdoors (backed up by birdsong audio for added effect).
As with all content created for the Pepsico brands, a single driving consideration was always to keep the content in the feed as varied as possible. The pursuit of this thumbstopping quality meant the content executions were diverse, never relying on a single type and included everything in the creative toolbox from stills, vlideo, wobble gifs, faux 3D, cinemagraphs, boomerangs and infinite loops.
