Ranveer Singh Becomes the New Face for Pepsi, Set to Fire Up Brand Appeal for Young Consumers

PepsiCo brings in Ranveer Singh as its Brand Ambassador as summer nears for India and a new campaign targeting young consumers is underway for the brand.

Written by: Arjita Gupta

Edited by: Krutarth Ghosalkar

Last Updated: February 28, 2023

A new campaign has been unveiled by Pepsi and the target is younger consumers. With summer approaching, the pursuit of uplifting cold drink sales is already on beverage brands’ minds. PepsiCo has thus, appointed its new brand ambassador as Ranveer Singh. In 2018, the company brought in Salman Khan as its face. It has also roped in Yash, the Kannada actor of KGF fame as its new face of the ‘Rise up Baby’ theme and probably will be accompanied by a leading female actor as well for the summer campaign.

Leveraging the demand for cold drinks after Covid-pandemic restrictions have been lifted, the nation is to see a good number of sales in the summer for cold drinks. Being a youth movement, Rise up Baby is set to introduce different flavors, and Ranveer along with Yash will definitely put the vibe into the March-end expected release. The news is confirmed by the category lead of Pepsi Cola, PepsiCo India, Saumya Rathor.

The brank ranking of Ranveer Singh since 2021 has improved and is estimated at a $158.3 million value. After Virat Kohli, he is the second-most valued brand per ranking and endorses 45 brands. The Rise Up Baby campaign gives us a view into the young generation and their lifestyle, breaking age-old norms and defining what happiness means to them. It is all about their nonchalant attitude toward judgments by society and rather following their passion.

The brand campaign may even show the generation lives on the lines of living on their own terms. While PepsiCo India will continue its association with Khan until the near term, Ranveer has been added to the bandwagon. Saumya Rathor said that they are not into celebrity replacement strategy as the brand has always presented a galaxy of superstars.

Several colas brands these days are introducing popular celebrities as their brand ambassadors. Ranveer Singh was earlier the brand ambassador of Thums Up, for whom even Salman Khan was the leading face. But right now, Shah Rukh Khan is the brand ambassador of Thums Up, who was ironically the one to endorse Pepsi in the early 2000s and late 90s.

As the competition is increasing, companies are searching for inspiring ideas to strategize their business. But the same does confuse consumers who are used to seeing similar celebrities as the face of rival brands years ago. The managing Director of Rediffusion, Sandeep Goyal said that both brands have large consumer bases and ample resources, so the constant challenge is to launch something new.