Brands
Pepsi gives the ‘kyun sookhe sookhe hi?’ campaign a new twist
MUMBAI: Beverage brand Pepsi has always been ahead of the curve when it comes to communicating with consumers. The brand has always innovated and developed campaigns that connect with consumers in the most relevant ways. Continuing this trend, this year too, Pepsi is reaching out to millions with its message of ‘Kyun Sookhe Sookhe Hi’ by giving a twist to typical YouTube advertising with Google’s dynamic advertising tool Director Mix. This tool creates custom video ads from one core creative, turning consumer’s attention into action.
Through Director Mix, Pepsi is showing its consumers content which is most relevant to them, in its trademark witty and humorous style. The brand has turned a limited set of creative assets for its ‘Kyun Sookhe Sookhe Hi’ campaign, including images, voiceovers, texts, fonts and colors into multiple unique messages catering to different audiences in a contextual and engaging manner.
Pepsi has fashioned over 100 customized creatives for Director Mix in a bid to stand out in the consumers’ mind. Each pre-roll ad will place the ‘Kyun Sookhe Sookhe Hi’ philosophy customized to the context of one’s search; and will reinstate the idea that food is incomplete without Pepsi. The unique marketing initiative has resulted in 96 million impressions, 84 million unique users and 87 million completed views, over the last few weeks.
Speaking about the Director Mix and success of the campaign, Raj Rishi Singh, Director Marketing, Pepsi, PepsiCo India, “Pepsi has always created campaigns and experiences which resonate strongly with consumers. In fact, we are constantly experimenting with different marketing tools and techniques and Director Mix, with its customized creatives, has helped us strike a chord with our consumers better. We have been able to reach our audiences with content which is most relevant for them. By leveraging Director Mix, Pepsi has been able to cut through the clutter in the digital space.”
Elaborating on Director Mix, Vikas Agnihotri, Industry Director, Google India said, “People are drawn to the contextual creatives as they’re highly engaging and they drive higher awareness for the brands. It’s great to see Pepsi take the approach of personalizing their campaign at scale on YouTube with our latest tool called Director Mix. Using the tool, Pepsi has turned its video campaign, into many highly relevant and shareable video’s that genuinely connects with their consumers at scale without having to worry about producing multiple video campaigns.”
Pepsi is leveraging Director Mix as part of the ‘Kyun Sookhe Sookhe Hi’ campaign, which kick started last month with a TVC featuring Pulkit Samrat, Varun Sharma and Manjot Singh, stars of the popular Fukrey movie franchise. The three actors will make their appearance in all Pepsi Director Mix ads as well. The 360-degree campaign also celebrates Pepsi’s strongest asset, its packaging through the introduction of new Pepsi Foodicon bottles. These bottles will feature different interpretations of age old street food favourites such as dosas, burgers and noodles, amongst others.
‘Kyun Sookhe Sookhe Hi’ will also be supported by massive outdoor & digital surround. There will also be exclusive promotions with partners like KFC, Pizza Hut & Subway.
Brands
UK’s OnlyFans seeks US investor at $3bn valuation after owner’s death
The adult video platform is seeking stability after the death of its billionaire owner
LONDON: OnlyFans is looking for a new partner. The London-based adult video platform is in advanced talks to sell a minority stake of less than 20 per cent to Architect Capital, a San Francisco-based investment firm, in a deal that would value the business at more than $3bn (£2.2bn).
The move is driven by an urgent need for stability. Leonid Radvinsky, the Ukrainian-American billionaire who owned OnlyFans, died of cancer last month at the age of 43, leaving the future of one of Britain’s most profitable privately held businesses suddenly uncertain.
The choice of Architect Capital is not arbitrary. The firm has deep expertise in financial services, which aligns neatly with OnlyFans’ ambitions to offer banking products to its creators, many of whom have long struggled to access basic financial services because of the nature of their work.
The numbers behind OnlyFans are, by any measure, staggering. The platform posted revenues of $1.4bn in the year to 30th November 2024, with a pre-tax profit of $684m, up four per cent on the prior year. Payments to creators totalled $7.2bn over the same period, a rise of nearly ten per cent. Radvinsky personally collected $701m in dividends from the business in 2024 alone, on top of more than $1bn in such payments he had already received. The platform, run through its parent company Felix International, hosts 4.6m creator accounts, with performers keeping 80 per cent of subscription proceeds and the platform pocketing the remaining 20 per cent. It has 377m fan accounts in total.
The current minority stake talks represent a notable scaling back of ambitions. In January, OnlyFans was reported to be in discussions with Architect about selling a majority stake of 60 per cent. Before that, the company had explored a sale to a consortium led by Forest Road Company, a Los Angeles-based investment firm. Neither deal materialised.
OnlyFans has built an enormously lucrative business on content that mainstream finance has long refused to touch. Now, with its owner gone and a $3bn valuation on the table, it is looking for the kind of respectable institutional backing that might finally persuade the banks to take its calls.
