Editor’s note: This story has been updated.
Deep in the heart of Coca-Cola territory in Georgia, PepsiCo is launching a new front in the cola wars — with the return of the Pepsi Challenge blind taste test.
The skirmish arrived in the Peach State on Thursday — National Have a Coke Day, no less — and will run the next few days.
This time, the longtime Coke rival is asking people out and about in Atlanta to sip from unmarked cups of Pepsi Zero Sugar and Coca-Cola Zero Sugar to decide which they prefer.
PepsiCo says all who participate will get a free 20 oz. bottle of Pepsi Zero Sugar “because even those with questionable taste deserve a second chance.”
The return of the Pepsi Challenge — and doing so in Atlanta-based Coke’s backyard — adds a bit of fizz to the long-brewing cola wars.
There will be Pepsi Challenge taste testing over the next couple of days at The Interlock on Howell Mill Road, on Friday at Colony Square in Midtown Atlanta and this weekend at Park Tavern and the Chastain Park Arts Festival. A Pepsi vehicle will also be stopping around the city to give out samples.
Pepsi relaunched the challenge this year at the Super Bowl in New Orleans and has since held taste tests in many cities.
According to PepsiCo, “So far, Pepsi Zero Sugar is the preferred cola in 100% of markets.”
It’s yet to be seen if that will remain true after Pepsi’s sojourn in Atlanta.
A steady stream of people visiting West Midtown on Thursday afternoon stopped by the large blue Pepsi Challenge trailer parked near Barcelona Wine Bar. Some were visiting on their day off, while others were on their lunch breaks.
Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
Monte Davis was one of the first to stop at the black Pepsi podium, where a brand ambassador poured Pepsi Zero Sugar and Coke Zero Sugar into two unmarked plastic cups behind the podium.
The ambassador handed Davis the two cups, and he tried a few sips from each before placing his favorite in the center of a console situated in front of the Pepsi “orb,” or a large screen. Based on an RFID tag on the bottom of the cup, the screen flashed loudly: Davis had selected Pepsi as his favorite.
Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
Davis, a Washington, D.C., native, said he has always preferred Pepsi to Coke.
“It just hits a little different. A hot day and the super cold (Pepsi), I just love it,” he said. “To me, it’s a little sweeter (than a Coke).”
But Davis said he can’t really knock Coke “because when I’m drinking my Jack,” as in Jack Daniel’s, “I’ll put Coke in my Jack.”
Taren Fergerson, an Atlanta native, ended up selecting Pepsi as her winner. If she had to choose, she said her loyalties lie with Pepsi.
Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
“I more so grew up on that with my nana — she loved a Pepsi. A diet Pepsi on a sunny day, it’s her favorite thing in the world,” she said. Fergerson thinks Pepsi is a little sweeter and lighter than Coke, “like an airy drink to me,” she said.
Nicholas Savage wandered over to the Pepsi trailer with his friend Brittany O’Neill, who was visiting from New Jersey. O’Neill and Savage guiltily admitted at the Pepsi trailer that they’re both Coke people, and they ended up selecting Coke as their favorite in the blind tasting.
O’Neill smelled both cups first, like a glass of wine, while Savage made sure to taste it twice.
“I will say, the Coke one tasted familiar,” Savage said.
Skye Alcin, a marketing student at Spelman College and usually a Coke girl, also selected Coke as her favorite.
“Seeing events like this is really nice because it just shows that they’re interacting with their communities,” Alcin said.
Coca-Cola celebrated National Have a Coke Day on Thursday in a different way. The World of Coca-Cola web page said visitors to the nearby Bottle Cap Cafe can get a free fountain drink by showing a May 8 ticket to the World of Coca-Cola.
Coca-Cola also marked the day, which is the company’s 139th birthday, with a new “reimagined” version of its Hilltop ad featuring a version of the song “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing” — this time done in American Sign Language.
In the video signing the lyrics are students from Gallaudet University, a university for deaf and hard of hearing students in Washington, D.C., who gave Coke a corporate “sign name,” or name in sign language.
Pepsi Challenge reboot
The return of the cola taste test marketing campaign comes on the 50th anniversary of the original Pepsi Challenge.
That also seemed to show that people preferred the taste of original Pepsi, in an early battle of the cola wars that eventually prompted Coca-Cola to question its original formula and launch the ill-fated New Coke.
Back then, Pepsi was deep in a battle to try to take down Coca-Cola. A film by Sony on the cola wars, involving Judd Apatow and Steven Spielberg, is in the works, according to Deadline.com.
Now, Pepsi is facing an even steeper uphill battle.
According to Beverage Digest, Pepsi has fallen to the No. 4 spot among the nation’s soft drinks measured by volume, behind Coca-Cola, Dr Pepper and now Sprite after an “Obey Your Thirst” campaign by Coca-Cola for its Sprite brand, Marketing Dive reported this week.
Even if the Pepsi Challenge seemed to show people prefer the taste of Pepsi, Coca-Cola has still long outsold Pepsi.
Duane Stanford, editor and publisher of Beverage Digest, a newsletter covering the industry, called the Pepsi Challenge a marketing strategy to get people to at least consider Pepsi as “a possible alternative, and to just capture attention.”
“They’re not going to be standing in the street at Colony Square doing a scientific study,” Stanford said.
Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
But it’s an important part of Pepsi’s broader strategy.
For the last decade, PepsiCo has been “going head-to-head with Coke Zero Sugar, and really trying to build their market share in that segment,” Stanford said. “They think that’s very important, because that’s where consumers are.”
What actually drives people to buy a particular soft drink is more nuanced than just a taste test, he noted. “It’s what you grew up with, the affinities you create over time,” Stanford said.
“People develop tastes for complex flavors,” and cola is one of the more complex soft drink flavors, Stanford said.
And there are broader issues beyond the Pepsi vs. Coke battle.
Beverage companies, including both PepsiCo and Coca-Cola, also face the challenge of adapting to shifting tastes, including preferences among younger drinkers for seltzers, sparkling water, prebiotic drinks and other soda alternatives.
Soda has also been vilified by some health experts, while the plastic bottles many soft drinks come in have been criticized for their carbon footprint.
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