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Pepsi ventures into in-game advertising

Ratna Bhushan

NEW DELHI, Sept. 5

In-film advertising, move over. Pepsi Foods is stepping into an unchartered territory even as the stakes for space in the print, television and in-film media get higher.

In a maiden initiative, the cola giant is venturing into in-game advertising.

The advertising for Pepsi, the brand, will be seen on a 3D game computer game titled, Yoddha -- the warrior.

Claimed to be the country's first 3D game, which enables players to maneuver 360 degree turns, Yoddha has been developed by Pepsi in association with the games portal, Indiagames.com.

Explaining why Pepsi opted for in-game advertising, Ms. Vibha Rishi, Executive Director, Pepsi Foods, told Business Line that while in-game advertising was in a nascent stage in India, video gaming was definitely a craze among teens and pre-teens worldwi de.

``By initiating such an exercise, we have ensured that we are first off the block,'' she said.

The game functions something like this: the player turns warrior, pursuing Gaddar Singh, the leader of a terrorist group. In his pursuit of conquering Gaddar Singh through a whole lot of hideouts, the warrior is required to annex Pepsi logos that appear on the screen. The idea is to accumulate `Pepsi power', which is indicated by a `Pepsi power meter' placed at the bottom of the screen, to indicate the amount of power the warrior has. Apart from the logos and power meter, Pepsi is also visible on the sc reen through its Yeh dil maange more ad slogan. Finally, the warrior comes across a Pepsi visi cooler even as he is chasing the terrorist.

Yoddha will be formally launched in the market by the end of this month, and will be available at Rs. 499. Indiagames.com plans to promote the concept of the game CD by tying up with a popular PC magazine. As part of the exercise, free samplers of Yoddha will be given away to select target audiences.

In addition to this alliance, Indiagames.com will also roll out an ad campaign to coincide with the launch of the CD. Though company officials refused to divulge the exact details of the campaign at this stage, they said it would be wacky and youth-centr ic, in tune with Pepsi's advertising.

Officials at Pepsi did not divulge the budget assigned for promoting Yoddha.

While advertising on a computer game is a first for Pepsi, the company has run gaming promotions earlier as well. A couple of months back, Pepsi had introduced a gaming under-the-crown and under-the-cap promotion for its Mirinda brand.

According to Pepsi officials, the Mirinda gaming contest was carried out across 40 cities and enabled consumers to win Nintendo video gameboys, among other prizes.To ensure high levels of participation, Pepsi had created gaming zones through kiosks at yo uth hangouts within the 40 cities. The Mirinda logo was also painted on select buses, and consumers were required to play on a Mirinda Gameboy to be eligible for the prizes.