PepsiCo Marketing VP Hopes Its 'No Lay's No Game' Concept Will Run for Years

A world-famous sports personality coming to your home to watch a game is a dream shared by fans all around the world. It is also one that PepsiCo may make a reality through its “No Lay’s No Game” campaign, which the brand’s most senior marketer believes has a core concept that could run for years.

The aim of the international campaign is to promote the notion that Lay’s chips help make watching soccer better.

For the second phase of the promotion around Lay’s tie-in with the men’s and women’s UEFA Champions League (UCL) soccer tournaments, the campaign ad will feature the World Cup-winning captain of Argentina and the winner of this year’s FIFA’s Player of the Year award, Lionel Messi.

In the film, Messi—who has promoted Lay’s and other PepsiCo products such as Gatorade and Pepsi No Sugar/Pepsi Max internationally—appears at a soccer fan’s front door with a camera crew in tow to watch a match. When he spots that they don’t have Lay’s, he goes to a neighbor’s house and hangs out with them instead, as they do have a bag. Even the dog is upset.

The ad was created by Mexican creative agency Slap and builds from the first spot released in February ahead of the latest round of the UCL. That saw former Barcelona, Arsenal and France striker Thierry Henry go to several people’s houses, offering to watch the game with them, but only if they could produce a pack of Lay’s from around the house.

Playing over both spots is the catchy meme “No Lay’s No Game” to the familiar tune of Celine Dion’s “All By Myself.”

There is a difference between the formats of the two films due to having less time available with Messi. That meant turning to a studio shoot to get the most from the Argentinian superstar. Newly promoted global vp of Lay’s Brand at PepsiCo, Ciara Dilley, is hopeful that the core campaign idea will run around the world.

“You have to be brave and believe in something like this,” explained Dilley. “It’s something that is really hard to test and research as a lot of it is down to how things come off on the day, but we did some consumer research, and we got really good feedback. When we started showing it internally though, everybody got it.”

In the span of a week, the Henry ad had amassed over 1.5 million views on YouTube alone.

Teaser videos for the new spot featuring Messi have also been released in advance through the brand’s Instagram channel.

Alongside the Lay’s social media and YouTube channels, Messi will share it with his millions of followers. The campaign will also be supported by paid social.

Dilley described Lay’s as “everybody’s brand,” and the campaign being one that aims to be “all-encompassing” and for all ages. The core concept is also one that everyone can empathize with across various countries, from the U.S. to Spain, Saudi Arabia to Turkey, where the final will be held June 10.

“I don’t think in our years we’ve ever done ‘live-action, in the moment,’ and we think we have hit on a genius campaign with ‘No Lay’s No Game.’ We’ve got years of ideas coming through when it comes to the personalities you could use and the characters you could work with. There is just so much opportunity to bring it to life,” added Dilley.

Every market will be different in execution, with local soccer stars set to arrive on people’s doorsteps looking for their Lay’s or the hosting of sweepstakes tied to winning tickets to the UCL Finals.

Limited-edition bags featuring football greats such as Messi will also be released to tie in with UCL tournaments.