PepsiTitan
the brief
A new look for a new moment. Following on from the unveiling of Pepsi’s new look identity in North America in 2023; PepsiCo International Beverages in Dublin was tasked with taking the core identity and adapting it for, and rolling it out across, all global markets. This would be no mean feat, with multiple regions – Europe, AMESA, APAC and Latam, coming within the remit of this project’s deliverables. Pepsi ‘Titan’ was the first project of it’s kind in IB, with global reach across all markets excluding North America; this would be the start of a new era for PepsiCo’s flagship brand, with a centrally managed and coordinated launch across media, packaging and POS in all markets.
Having worked previously on PepsiCo’s Hydration portfolio including Gatorade and Mountain Dew, I was asked by IB’s Head of Design to project manage the delivery of the creative brief for Pepsi Titan, working along side the Packaging Design Execution Lead, and Design Lead as project owner. Uniting the new Pepsi Globe and wordmark across languages and cultures; managing engagement with regions, markets, local design teams, 3rd party print suppliers and bottlers; we needed to ensure that the revitalized and distinct design, and core visual system with a new signature blue and black “pulse”, was adapted and built out to meet the cultural and commercial needs of a very diverse geographical footprint.
Project ManagementStrategy & Tools
The first task was building the project management structure and budgeting for the global design studio brief; and establishing a communications platform for managing comms and approvals for various workflows across the global studio teams, agency partners, and commercial negotiations with vendors and internal stakeholders.
I developed the project workflow tools, communication platforms and review mechanisms to align regional design studios with the global creative direction, integrating new platforms into the IB Design studio for the first time. I also set up and had overall responsibility for the global creative review sessions with regional studios to ensure adherence with the design standards we had developed, ahead of a planned coordinated global launch across the regions in early 2024.
Global Brand VisPlatform
In order to ensure a cohesive rollout, an online brand book platform was built to ensure regional teams and agency partners had access to approved global assets, layout templates, custom typography, colour usage guidelines and core animations to facilitate the development of localised variations, outdoor and in store POS.
Adherence to global colour standards across all customer touch points – packaging, POS, Outdoor and digital formats was crucial to the successful delivery of this brief, and I also worked with Packaging Execution leads and 3rd party suppliers to develop a physical colour reference book, based upon real world print tests, that could then be used to match against regardless of print technology being utilised.
Global AssetsDevelopment
In addition to providing a library of editable key visuals, a major challenge for the team was to develop digital assets that reflected a diverse set of bottle and can formats in use across the various markets. The traditional stubby can formats from North America were supplemented by Slim 330ml variations in Europe, glass bottle profiles across APAC and AMESA, and numerous variations of plastic bottles from 500ml up to 3l. Each format was rendered out in high resolution layered artwork for logo translations and flavour descriptors, with and without ‘refreshment’ cues (condensation, ice etc.), ready to be quickly integrated into localised artwork for packaging, in-store, outdoor and digital use.
We also oversaw the development of typefaces that expanded upon the new Latin Pepsi typeface; into Cyrillic, Arabic and Asian alphabets, to maintain visual cohesion with the master brand whilst also ensuring reading accuracy and legibility in the local languages.
ASSETS
Local Flavours & Packaging Variations
PepsicCo’s Global Design Execution already had an established workflow for developing and approving global and regional packaging artwork. This was rolled into the Titan workflow to manage review/feedback across hundreds of packaging variations and critically to track global stakeholder approvals on these local variations, in line with the global playbook; and facilitate NPD within the Titan framework.
The ability to integrate these existing global packaging processes, to track version development and approvals in a centralised project management tool was fundamental in catching issues early, ensuring alignment across studios, and avoiding potentially costly corrections after files had been released to printers.
Content Creation
As part of the wider brief, I also worked with our agency partners on launch content development and ‘sizzle’ reels to build anticipation around the impending launch. This involved both creative and commercial oversight, negotiating budgets and working with my design counterpart to deliver flexible assets that stayed true to the core brand message, whilst also being reflective of the global nature of the launch.
This workflow ran in parallel with the work being done by the marketing teams, informing their approach to the broader brand launch and providing clear guidance to agencies across the world on how to execute within Titan guidelines. This partnership between global Brand and Design, was key to ensuring a cohesive, coordinated launch activation. The project mechanisms I’d developed helped to remove barriers to communication, promote stakeholder engagement early and align approvals, within a tight timeframe.
TITAN
Project OutcomesCommercial & Operational
Following the successful launch of Pepsi Titan into global markets in 2024, I undertook a follow up project to integrate the operational structures developed for Titan into the wider International Beverages Global Design studio. The scope for this brief was expansive, covering studio budget allocation and oversight, building operational workflows, creative team resourcing; and commercial negotiations on special projects, including the much lauded Pepsi Smart Can. The Global Design studio won Red Dot Brands + Comms Agency of the Year 2024.
The Pepsi Titan Global Rebrand has won over 27 global design awards since launch. This was an extremely complex undertaking, with hundreds of line item deliverables to be managed across dozens of teams, whilst aligning global stakeholders across the regions.
PepsiCo International Beverages Design Studio was a fantastic client to work with, and Pepsi Titan is a career highlight project for all those involved in delivering a project of this scale and importance, for one of the world’s most well known beverage brands.
