By Haley Keding

Super Bowl LIII brought more competition than just the Rams vs. the Patriots. Soda giants Coke and Pepsi went head-to-head in their game time marketing tactics, and Pepsi did everything it could to beat Coke for a day on its home turf. As Craig and I debated in last week’s blog, the two brands couldn’t have approached their Super Bowl marketing more differently. A week later, the game is just a memory (thank God) and there’s a true champion of Super Bowl LIII marketing. Pepsi.

As we dove into the numbers, and reminisced about Steve Carell comparing Pepsi to puppies, we saw an even 4 percent increase in stock market value from the Monday before to the Monday after the game for both Pepsi and Coke. So regardless of Coke’s minor and Pepsi’s major investment in the game, they both saw significant growth as far as the stock market goes. But you can’t end the Super Bowl with a tie, now can you?

Sure, Coke and Pepsi earned equal growth in the stock market, but Coke’s marketing efforts weren’t enough to keep up with NFL sponsor, Pepsi. On Instagram, Pepsi destroyed Coke and generated $104,888 worth of earned media value and 218,627 likes on the platform. All thanks to their influencer campaign with Cardi B, Steve Carrell and Lil John. Twitter was a great success for Pepsi too, with the brand settling in with more than 71,800 mentions before midnight Feb. 4. The only brand that earned more mentions was the NFL. Now THAT’S the kind of return on investment you want from a Super Bowl ad.

And if social media wasn’t enough, Pepsi busted into Coke’s home base of Atlanta and painted the town blue with billboards that read “Pepsi in Atlanta. How refreshing.” And in a memorable bit of sportsmanship that brought in their brands’ respective inventors, Pepsi put up a temporary Caleb Bradham statue cheering the John Pemberton statue outside World of Coke. To win a big game, you need to be bold and open up the playbook. Pepsi did, and came away a clear winner.