Anuj Goyal on Slice’s marketing efforts in 2023 with new brand ambassador Kiara Advani 

The brand has officially introduced Kiara Advani as the Slice brand ambassador. PepsiCo’s Anuj Goyal gives his insights on what to expect from this collaboration on the marketing front and more. 

Summer’s approaching and with it, beverage brands are coming up with new campaigns and TVCs to promote their products. For beverage brand Slice, from the house of PepsiCo India, Katrina Kaif has become almost synonymous with what the brand represents. Now, it has introduced Kiara Advani as the Slice brand ambassador.

It has also launched its campaign ‘Aam Ka Ehsaas. Sabse Khaas’ starring Kiara. With this association, Slice aims to further connect with its audience and reinforce its position as the go-to drink for mango lovers across the country.

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In an interview with Social Samosa, Anuj Goyal, Associate Director, Slice and Tropicana, PepsiCo India spoke about Katrina’s longtime association with the brand and what they are expecting now with Kiara as the ambassador. 

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“Katrina has been a phenomenal partner on brand Slice and this association has lasted for almost 16 years. What I'm really happy to say is that she is still a part of the PepsiCo family, she still continues on brand Aquafina. Having said that, we wanted to have a fresh face on the brand who has a large youth appeal. I think Kiara Advani is a youth icon in India, she has a very large following across geographies within India, not only in metropolitan cities, but in Tier II, Tier III towns and on the internet. So we believe we couldn't have had a better association to do justice to the objective that we want to drive in the brand.” 
Kiara has a social currency of 28.9 million followers on Instagram and 2.7 million followers on Twitter.

A sunny summer

The early onset of summer has brought in an increase in demand for ice creams and soft drinks and sales are likely to grow in strong double-digits this season. Brand Slice has observed a high amount of traction as well. 

Anuj said, “It’s a trend that you see. During COVID, we were seeing a trend that people were not going out, and they were in their home, and hence they were consuming more in homes, and we were seeing a high amount of traction for our large packs. But as COVID went away, and the markets opened up, people started stepping out, we are seeing a huge spike in out-of-home consumption. We are seeing a lot of growth coming through penetration through consumption as well.”

Different Slice(s) of marketing mediums

Slice has made use of TV as its biggest medium of promotion for many years in India. The brand also tends to release digital influencer marketing campaigns right in time for summer.

Its campaign for Ramadan in 2019 featured Yusuf Pathan, Irfan Pathan, Soha Ali Khan and Neha Dhupia celebrating Iftar with Slice kits. The ‘SliceOfIftar’ campaign created traction and reached 19 million Instagrammers. Similarly, its ‘SliceKiPeti’ campaign in 2020, featured influencers like Kusha Kapila, Dolly Singh and more to redefine the concept of ‘Aam Ki Peti’ and garnered a whopping reach of 54 Million on social media across the brand and influencer handles. 

When asked about the mediums the brand will continue to use to reach its target audience, Anuj said, “TV obviously still remains the biggest medium in India. We will continue to be seen there. But, digital also is becoming a big medium and it also provides us the opportunity to sharply target the consumer cohorts. We are also seeing that digital channels like E-commerce and Quick commerce are becoming bigger. As a brand, we have taken those steps to be salient on those channels as well. At the overall level, TV would be the lead medium, followed by a very good digital mix, and then the entire 360. And influencers are an important part. We pick and choose campaigns, and we figure out where we need their advocacy on our campaigns.” 

Talking about the major focus on the marketing front in 2023, beverage brand Slice aims to understand the consumer trends and keep in pace with what the youth of the country wants. 

Anuj said that the beverage industry as a whole is growing its penetration and with Slice venturing more into Tier II, Tier III towns and the rural areas of the country, it is very important to provide value to the consumer. 

He concluded, “We have low unit packs as well to cater to the needs of those consumers while focusing on the other consumer sector, including Metro. With Quick Commerce and E-commerce becoming bigger, our focus is there.”