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7Up: Lemony Cricket

With 7Up's Lemon Pattalam contest, consumers in Tamil Nadu get an opportunity to score 7's against the IPL team, Chennai Super Kings

If you dreamt of sharing the cricket field with the Chennai Super Kings (CSK), 7Up's Lemon Pattalam (meaning 'brigade') contest might be the one for you. Initiated by PepsiCo, the contest gives an opportunity to fans to pit themselves against the likes of M S Dhoni, Matthew Hayden and Mutthiah Muralitharan.

7Up: Lemony Cricket
"The 7Up Lemon Pattalam is a contest with lemony attitude," says Alpana Titus, executive vice president - flavours, PepsiCo India. "The concept revolves around a refreshing take on cricket and playing a fun form of cricket."

Now in its second year, 7Up Lemon Pattalam is a cricketing platform that consists of a rubber ball game. The game has teams of 7 players each, playing a game of 7 overs per innings, with 7 balls per over and scoring a 7 instead of a sixer.

To participate in the event, consumers need to collect seven labels from 7Up PET bottles and register themselves in a team of seven, in one of the 14 cities covered by the contest.

Depending on the number of registrations, teams will compete in intra-city matches to select a city champion. These city champions will, in turn, compete against each other. The winning team will get a chance to play against CSK.

The event, which is spread over 75 days, will culminate in the finals in Chennai, on April 1. During these 75 days, 7Up's vans will move in high-traffic areas, such as malls, colleges and resident welfare associations (RWAs), in all 14 cities, promoting and giving more details about the event.

The event is expected to reach about 10 million consumers in 14 cities, involving 700 teams over two months.

The participating cities are: Coimbatore, Madurai, Trichy, Salem, Tirupur, Tirunelveli, Pondicherry, Erode, Thoothukudi, Thanjavur, Vellore, Nagarcoil, Dindigul and Chennai.

Last year, 7Up Lemon Pattalam involved seven cities, with about 350 teams spread over a month.

The entire activation will be supported by 360-degree initiatives, utilizing electronic media, print media, outdoor, radio, floats, point of sale merchandise and youth hangout initiatives.

The consumer engagement activities include games and sessions, such as quizzes around cricket, CSK team members and 7Up, tongue twisters, push up competitions and cheerleading competitions across the 14 cities.

The winners of these activities will receive memorabilia, including caps, disco glares, lemon hats, T-shirts, balls and iPods. Consumers could also win passes for CSK matches during IPL-3, which are played in the state.

The entire activity is, however, only for Tamil Nadu. "Since Tamil Nadu is a flagship market for our 7Up brand, which has a strong foothold with over 25 per cent market share, we wanted to bring a local connect with the consumers," reasons Titus.

PepsiCo has also launched a TV campaign to promote the event. The three TVCs under the campaign, which will be aired in two phases, have been created by BBDO and creative director is Sandipan Bhattacharya.

"Of the three TVCs, two are already-on air and the third one will be broadcast in a couple of weeks," says Titus.

The first two commercials focus on informing consumers about the contest and provide tips on improving the game. The third commercial is aimed at people who are not cricket players.

The company has also scored a track for Pattalam. The music video will be on-air on Tamil music channel, SS Music.

The event will be promoted by radio partner, Suryan FM and media partner, Raj TV. The activation agency for the 7Up is Mudra Max, while the outdoor agency is Platinum Outdoor.

Last year, PepsiCo arranged an all-expenses-paid trip for a team of seven amateur cricketers to South Africa to play against CSK.

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