The Indian Premier League is the Pepsi IPL this year. Even as KKR won the toss and put Delhi Daredevils in to bat on Wednesday, t2 took a swig at what the new name means for you the fan and them the brand. Homi Battiwalla, category director, colas, hydration and mango-based beverages, PepsiCo, explained.

What does it mean for Pepsi to sponsor the IPL?

It’s a really big thing for Pepsi to sponsor IPL and have it called the Pepsi IPL. We’ve been invested in cricket for a long time.... But I feel this is beyond just the brand. It’s about how will we, as a company, leverage it... that’s the bigger question.

IPL happens in our peak months — April and May — the maximum business comes in at this time. And for an impulse-purchase category like ours, linking it to a platform like cricket and a property like the IPL really helps us get the right connect.

Ranbir Kapoor in Pepsi’s Oh Yes Abhi! ad

Tell us about the ad campaigns for Pepsi IPL 2013...

See, the excitement about the tournament is that while there is a lot of fan-following for home teams, there’s also a lot of following for other teams. That’s because your heroes and your favourite players, whether Indian or international, are scattered all over. So we’re celebrating the multiple loyalties that fans have… it’s actually a celebration of, in a way, the impermanence of the platform. You could be winning, you could be losing, it could be a four, it could be a six, but you know what, Pepsi is the one thing that’s always there to link it all together.

So, the first part of our campaign has a very irreverent take on two fans who are fighting over their teams and we have Ranbir Kapoor who comes in disguise as a very simple person and outwits them by giving them a bottle of Pepsi and tells them not to fight and be loyal to India. But in reality, he’s a supporter of Delhi Daredevils! It’s a fun thing and the tagline goes like this… “X team kabhi toh Y team kabhi par Pepsi, Oh Yes Abhi!”

There’s more to it. When a four is hit, or a six, our campaign will say, “Four kabhi toh six kabhi par Pepsi Oh Yes Abhi!” Then “Heads kabhi toh tails kabhi par Pepsi Oh Yes Abhi!” or “Out kabhi toh not out kabhi par Pepsi Oh Yes Abhi!”

What about ground activities?

The whole in-stadia piece is a dramatic piece for us to leverage. For the first time you’ll see the teams are sitting in Pepsi can-shaped dugouts. They are very comfortable and very attractive, many players have said they love it. There are 3D pitch mats for the first time and dynamic perimeter boards. It gives us a chance to run multiple brands, not just logos. On the side screens, it’s “Lays or Pepsi Oh Yes Abhi!” because we know that nothing goes better with a cricket match than a bag of potato chips and a Pepsi. It’s a perfect combination.

Then there’s our BIG idea…. the Pepsi VIP box. The VIP box will be in the heart of a special Pepsi globe — an air-conditioned box like the Platinum lounges here, with a balcony. It’ll be very dramatic in looks. A whole lot of contests are going on… in places like Pizza Hut, KFC, local key hangouts and other activities we’ll launch subsequently, and winners will get to sit inside. We’re doing it in six of the IPL venues, including Eden Gardens. Given our roster of celebrities, we really want to make the VIP box a “destination”.

And, if you’ve noticed, the stumps are branded in our colours — red, white and blue.

Red-white-blue branded stumps at Pepsi IPL 2013

Anything particular for GenY?

We’ve always created lines and campaigns that young people want and I think there is nothing more “abhi” and “now” than this particular format of the game. It’s for the impatient generation that doesn’t want to spend more than three-four hours on a match. They want to come, have a big party and go back.

We’ve taken the IPL horn and remixed it with Oh Yes Abhi! The DJ will play the mix. We’re going to launch a contest for the best 30 IPL horns and Oh Yes Abhi remixes by various DJs.

More importantly… digital. We have 3.7million fans on Facebook. In fact, when we did Change the Game for Pepsi in 2011, it was the only Indian campaign to feature in Facebook’s Top 10 Campaigns of the Year. This time, for online engagements, the official hashtag for the tournament is #pepsiIPL. We’re using Twitter and Facebook very strongly. But we are integrating all social conversation into a website, www.pepsi.in. It customises itself to a person’s liking, it has a name, userboard updates and all contests are integrated into it.

The first thing we rolled out (on April 2) is called Pepsi Tweet20. It’s a cricket tournament on Twitter. We tweet a ball and people score runs. It’s an intelligent game.

What about the crazy fan?

You’d have noticed, across everything I’ve just said, the fan is at the centre. Therefore, we have this whole concept of the Pepsi IPL Bigboss, which is like the superfan of the tournament. All our activities, all our contests on digital will help him score points on a virtual leaderboard, which will get updated every week. We’re planning a massive gratification, including at the finals, where we are hoping that the winner will present The Most Valuable Player trophy.

Last sip?

Ultimately, there are going to be 70,000 very thirsty people at the stadium. We’ve redefined our pouring experience and set up some wonderful kiosks with brand new machines. Because ultimately, that’s your moment of truth. The rest is visible but when you drink it, that’s when you say “this is my brand”. We hope to sell more than 2.5million cups during the tournament!