Pepsi Uses AI to Detect the 'Sweetness Factor' in Innovative Campaign

Pepsi debuts its newest integrated campaign ‘The Sweetest’, asking soda fans “What’s Sweeter” as it tests its new, zero sugar Strawberries ‘N’ Cream and Cream Soda flavours against the sweetest everyday items.

Pepsi’s ‘The Sweetest’ campaign centres around an innovative new AI tool that can detect something’s sweetness factor. As a world first, Pepsi developed a proprietary AI system designed to help understand something’s sweetness, verified with the help of science and AI (no, but really!). From people, animals, objects, and even abstract objects, like a heartfelt text from your grandma, the tool offers a revolutionary approach to sweetness quantification.

Using a unique combination of AI technology, the AI system can identify and rate how ‘sweet’ an object is, including Pepsi’s two new zero sugar flavours. It uses AI models, image recognition and data analysis to define something’s sweetness, alongside the more traditional definition based on physical factors like colour, visual softness, common perception and literal sweetness, in the case of food. It also understands figurative sweetness, and the pleasant emotion something can provoke, is just as important as literal sweetness.

Celebrating Pepsi's new indulgent zero sugar flavour duo, the integrated campaign taps into today’s ‘little sweet treat’ trend, specifically amongst the flavour-forward gen z audience. Pepsi invites consumers to playfully determine 'What’s Sweeter?' when objects are pitted against the delicious sweetness of these Pepsi zero sugar flavours.

Across formats, all of which features data verified with the help of science and AI, images of Pepsi Strawberries ‘N’ Cream and Cream Soda cans will appear with a sweetness result, revealing the flavour is, for example, “1% sweeter than a Pomeranian puppy”, “8% sweeter than this cute potato” and “Almost as sweet as a text from your grandma”. The campaign will run across Digital Social and OOH.

A free experiential activity will also launch in Central London, open from Thursday 17th to Sunday 20th April. Inspired by the two flavours, the Pepsi ‘Sweet Room’ pop-up is a multi-sensory explosion of flavour and colour, where indulgence meets discovery. Inviting soda lovers (aged 16+) to embrace their sweet side in a vibrant experience, the pop-up offers the chance to win unique sweet prizes in the ‘Sweet Arcade’ or sample the zero sugar Strawberries 'N' Cream and Cream Soda flavours at the guilt-free drink dessert bar. The experience will also host merchandise giveaways.

Chief creative officer for Sips & Bites Europe, PepsiCo, Matthew Watson said, "We wanted to create something as sweet as the product itself, but also cool and culturally relevant. That's why we clashed the seriousness of science and AI with sweet and sometimes trivial topics - and this experiment created the perfect amount of wonderful absurdity to deliver the indulgence of the flavours in a completely unexpected way."

Steven Hind, CMO beverages, UK&I at Pepsi said, “We're thrilled to launch this campaign, harnessing cutting-edge AI technology to bring a burst of excitement to the cola category. We're celebrating the pure, guilt-free joy of flavour and encouraging everyone to savour life's sweetest moments and things.”

Smooth Technology said, "We're excited to be a part of the first computer system made to detect sweetness. Through creating this AI system, we got to truly understand sweetness on a different level. What makes something sweet, figurately and literally? To understand that, we made a system that looks at everything from colour and softness to what people think about it."

The campaign was devised by PepsiCo’s in-house creative agency, Sips & Bites.