Fairfax, Va. (March 19, 2024) – The Hispanic Marketing Council (HMC) announced today that Pepsi is the winner of the 2024 HMC Marketer of the Year Award, joining an elite list of organizations that have received the award since its inception in 2014, including AARP, Ford, Kellogg’s, McDonald’s, Molson Coors, Nestlé, Sprint, State Farm, Toyota and Walmart. The award will be accepted by Esperanza Teasdale, VP & General Manager, Hispanic Business Unit, PepsiCo Beverages North America at HMC’s 2024 Annual Summit on April 11 in New York City who will discuss how leading with cultural acumen, fostering Hispanic creativity and leveraging the right insights and partnerships has led to brand growth and a loyal base of aficionados.

“We are honored to be recognized by HMC on the 10^th anniversary of the Marketer of the Year awards,” said Teasdale. “Today’s modern consumer is multicultural. Leading with cultural insights and ensuring diverse voices are driving the conversation is a critical business need and ensures we engage multicultural consumers authentically.”  

To be considered for this prestigious award, companies had to demonstrate a top-down commitment to multicultural marketing and allocate spending commensurate with the Hispanic opportunity.

Recognizing Latino voices and leading with culture to reach the mainstream

In 2016, Pepsi Beverages North America made the strategic decision to create the Hispanic Business Unit.  The team works closely with its advertising agency of record alma, communications, social and influencer agency of record BODEN and media agency of record Omnicom Media Group (OMG) to produce groundbreaking general market and culture forward work. The brand consistently ensures that the right insights, leveled-up creative and integrated activations permeate across the entire organization.

“Pepsi not only consistently allocates intentional and appropriate investments to the Hispanic market, but it also recognizes the unique expertise culture agencies bring to mainstream campaigns whose audiences are inherently multicultural,” said HMC Chair Isabella Sanchez, VP of Media Integration at Zubi. “That fact that Pepsi has made leading with cultural insights a strategic imperative and relies upon a cohesive group of Hispanic experts from HMC member agencies like alma, BODEN and OMG made them the top case for the 2024 Marketer of the Year.”

Tapping into the right cultural nuances and the right partnerships

Over the years, Pepsi has leveraged key cultural passion points and unique partnerships to create authentic and long-lasting connections.

• Food & beverages
  Mejor con Pepsi is the Spanish language version of Better with Pepsi and featured authentic Hispanic food dishes and dynamic family occasions to celebrate the diversity of Latin American cuisine. The campaign delivered 1.2 billion paid impressions with 157 million earned impressions dedicated to Hispanic media. It also drove a three-point lift in purchase intent and saw a shift in favorability for Hispanic users.

• Soccer and its superstars
  With U.S. soccer popularity on the rise and knowing Latinos are avid fans, Pepsi leveraged its UEFA Championship sponsorship by partnering with megastars Lionel Messi and Chicharito for Play to Inspire, a Pepsi and Pepsi Zero Sugar campaign. Pepsi’s Hispanic dollar sales saw increased growth as a result of this campaign.

Additionally, the Team of Champions platform invested $1 million over three years to provide access to the game of futból/soccer, impacting over 43 clubs and more than 30,000 youth players, coaches and parents since inception.

• Música y baile
  During the peak of summertime cola season, Pepsi partnered with Bad Bunny for Press Play on Summer, a Gen Z/Hispanic campaign featuring a partnership with Apple Music and prize giveaways. The campaign drove more than 3 billion earned media impressions, nearly 720 million paid impressions and over 280,000 sweepstakes registrations.

On International Dance Day, Pepsi launched Muévelo con Pepsi, the first-ever Latino fusion dance masterclass on the metaverse featuring celebrity choreographer Beau Casper Smart to celebrate the diversity of Latin music. With limited edition Pepsi and Pepsi Zero Sugar cans that featured five music genres:  Banda, Cumbia, Norteño, Reggaeton and Salsa, the campaign earned more than 625 million impressions with 50,000 metaverse participants, tripling Pepsi’s engagement rate.

Combatting stereotypes and leaning into the unexpected
Aiming to drive awareness and trial of the newly reformulated Pepsi Zero Sugar among Latinos, the brand launched a campaign that leveraged the idea that while Latinos are often stereotyped, they don’t fit in a box—e.g., a mariachi who loves rock, a Latina who can’t dance reggaeton but excels at ballet. In the same way, cola can have zero sugar and still taste great. The program delivered digital, social and retail tools for in-store activations and drove a 1.6% lift in ad recall on Meta.

Supporting small businesses

To celebrate Latino entrepreneurship, PepsiCo launched the Juntos Crecemos small business platform, a $50 million investment through 2025 to provide access to capital, digital and delivery expertise and traffic driving support to restaurants, bodegas and carnicerías. As part of this initiative, PepsiCo created the Jefa-Owned campaign to shine a light on Latina small business owners during Women’s History Month, who make up the fastest growing entrepreneurial segment.

PepsiCo also recently announced the return of the Greenhouse Accelerator: Juntos Crecemos Edition, a collaborative program that provides funding and pairs breakthrough start-ups with PepsiCo experts to help grow their businesses. For the second consecutive year, this edition of Greenhouse Accelerator will focus on elevating high-potential CPG food and beverage startups that demonstrate the promise of transforming the industry with snacks and beverages that are better for people and the planet. Applications are open through May 6, 2024, at https://greenhouseaccelerator.com/juntos-crecemos/.

For more information, visit hispanicmarketingcouncil.org and follow HMC on LinkedIn and on Instagram at @hmchispanic using the conference hashtag #HMC2024.