A peek at PepsiCo's Super Bowl marketing playbook
There's also some bantering and brainstorming -- as well as a heaping serving of corporate branding.
It's a Saturday afternoon, and eight CIA students are showing off their cooking chops in a bid to win scholarship money and a trip to the Super Bowl via PepsiCo's "Game Day Grub Match" competition.
These rookie chefs are tasked with creating the ultimate Big Game party fare. But there's a caveat: they must use at least three PepsiCo products as ingredients. For the students, it's about 15 minutes of fame and some prize money for good measure. For PepsiCo., it's yet another corporate-created marketing move to make the most of its multi-million dollar Super Bowl sponsorship investment.
The students -- who were told a few days earlier that they were selected to compete -- came with prepared recipe concepts. Yet, their final dishes could only come to fruition after they saw the PepsiCo products provided as potential ingredients.
Earlier on Saturday, each team received a trunk with soft drinks, chips, oatmeal, dips and other fare from PepsiCo brands such as Frito-Lay, Tropicana, Pepsi-Cola, Quaker and Naked Juice. Shelves in the kitchen were packed with even more PepsiCo ingredient choices.
Now, toque-topped students poured Pepsi over pork, marinated chicken in Tostitos salsa and mixed Quaker Oats in a batter to create foods such as "Pepsi Pulled Pork With Slammin' Slaw On A Crunchy Quaker Oat Biscuit" and "Chicken Chipotle Salsa Super Bowl-ritos."
Food Network star and Grub Match host Anne Burrell roamed the kitchen, advocating the use of Rold Gold pretzels and Tostitos chips to add crunch and flavor. She stressed the "huge opportunity" to crush Lay's Kettle Cooked chps or SunChips for breading.
To make sure this branding bonanza reached the masses, PepsiCo brought in a crew to film a reality-show-esque video series that will launch Tuesday on gamedaygrubmatch.com.
The Grub Match is one of many brand-promoting maneuvers that PepsiCo has cooked for Super Bowl XLIX.
On Feb. 1, it'll join other firms that paid up to $4.5 million for 30-seconds of commercial time, advertising its Doritos and Pepsi brands.
Pepsi also sponsors the halftime show and Tostitos will host a "Tostitos Party Blvd." area in the downtown area of Super Bowl host city of Phoenix.
In this cluttered media environment, it's difficult for an in-game advertiser to stand out with just a commercial, says Allen Adamson, North American chairman at branding firm Landor Associates.
Companies must be creative in designing their Big Game play books, and need to reach consumers before, during and after the game, he says.As for the Grub Match, Adamson notes that it's "a bit of as stretch because you don't think of PepsiCo products as ingredients in high-end Culinary Institute of America food."
But he also notes that this is a unique, even "clever," way for PepsiCo to spread Super Bowl star power across all its brands.
PepsiCo spokesman Jeff Dahncke says the cook-off provides a "dual benefit" of creating recipes for football fans and foodies "while also reminding them that we offer the range of choices."
The promotion of Pepsi's vast portfolio comes at a time when one major category -- soft drinks - faces big challenges.
Sugary soft drinks have been a target for politicians and health advocates. And at the same time, consumption has declined.
In 2013, U.S. total sales volume in the carbonated soft drink category was down 3% in to about 8.9 billion cases, according to the latest sales data from industry tracker Beverage Digest. That sales volume was down 1.2% in 2012 and down 1% in 2011.Matthew F. Johnson and Cullen Folks, members of "Team 1," coveted the contest's monetary prize, which is a $5,000 scholarship for the winning team to share.
"We both have no money," Johnson said. "So the money side was important for us."
That team may have lacked cash, but they had confidence.
"On the spot, we really can come up with anything" Johnson said on Saturday. "The food will come naturally."
Team 2 served up a "Shelling in the Lay's Potato Chip Sand"- themed dish that featured a crab cake and bacon-wrapped shrimp on bed of crushed potato chips.
On Sunday, a judging panel consisting of professional chefs and one pro football player questioned the beach motif.
In the end, that dish didn't make the cut.The judges selected Johnson and Folks (creators of the chipotle salsa burrito) and Marie Taccino and Olivia DeSalvo (creators of the pulled pork sandwich with coleslaw) as the seminfinalists.
The former used Tostitos Cantina Chipotle salsa, Pepsi, Sierra Mist, Fritos Bean Dip Original Flavor and Sabra Guacamole as ingredients. The latter used Quaker Oats, Pepsi, Naked Chia Cherry Lime, Fritos, Tropicana Farm Stand Peach Mango.
Those two teams will head to Arizona, sample their dishes for athletes and professional chefs, and a winner will be named at a NFL food event the Saturday before the Super Bowl.