'Team Blue' to wipe off pesticide blues for PepsiCo

New Delhi, Sep 22 (UNI) After roping in Chairman Rajeev Bakshi in an attempt to battle out the pesticide controversy ruffled up by NGO Centre for Science and Environment Director Sunita Narain, PepsiCo India is set to leverage the peaking cricket fever in India by rebuilding its brand and regaining post-issue losses.

The company today unveiled its six-series advertisement campaign, a cricket dedicated website, in partnership with Yahoo besides an audio-video CD in partnership with Sony BMG under its 'Blue Billion' campaign.

The advertisements feature Pepsi's brand ambassadors Indian cricket team ex-captain Saurav Ganguly, besides actors Shah Rukh Khan, Priyanka Chopra, John Abraham and Shreyas Talpade.

''Cricket has always worked for us in connecting with the people and during the season our sales usually raise. This time also we expect to recapture the market,'' PepsiCo India Executive Vice President Vipul Prakash told reporters here, adding that this is one of the biggest campaigns undertaken by the soft drink major.

He, however, did not divulge any further information on the amount spend on the campaign.

The first series, which is already on air with the tagline 'Oooooh Aaaah India', will continue till the World Cup next year, while the remaining five advertisement-series will be rolled out in the next 15 days before the ICC Champion's Trophy begins on October 7.

As part of the promotion programme, Pepsi will distribute free gifts including clothes, identity cards, cricket games and accessories to cricket freaks, who can log onto the website, www.bluebillion.co.in, for sending messages and voting for their favourite players.

The service will also be available on cell phones. However, print advertising will not play a major role in the promotion programme, Mr Prakash said, and added that the website had already registered 56,000 users in the first eight days itself.

As part of the programme, the company will also hold a contest, the winners of which will get an opportunity to be on 'Blue Billion Express' trains that will between Delhi and Jaipur, with the cricket team to cheer them during the first India-England match of the ICC Champions Trophy.

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