https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=MLyvkBifQ3w
Last week, Pepsi MAX released Part II to their now infamous “Uncle Drew” Series. This continues on with the same premise as Part I, which you can check out here. The original premise was Pepsi went to a pick-up basketball game in Bloomfield, New Jersey pretending to shoot a documentary on a basketball player named “Kevin.” All spectators were given free samples of Pepsi MAX, and were told them to point them at the camera. This was obvious product placement, but what the crowd didn’t know was that they were in for a surprise. When a player gets injured, Kevin volunteers his “Uncle Drew” as a replacement. “Uncle Drew” is noticeably a good 40 years older than everyone else, and appears to be slow and un-coordinated at first. But after a few missed shots, “Uncle Drew” starts playing like a pro, and wows the crowd with his seemingly unbelievable play, all while sipping Pepsi MAX. Turns out, Kevin’s “Uncle Drew” was actually NBA point guard Kyrie Irving, fresh off his unanimous win for the league’s Rookie of the Year award two days prior to the shoot. The 2nd video in the series has “Uncle Drew” recruiting an old team member named “Wes” for a pickup game in Los Angeles, California. Once again, the players and spectators had no idea what they were in for as “Wes” was actually Kevin Love, another NBA player who just so happens to be a two-time all-star, and Gold medalist from the most recent London Olympics. At the end of the videos, you see Kyrie and Kevin undergoing their transformations with the tagline “a zero-calorie cola in disguise.”
The LA crowd is in disbelief when Uncle Drew reveals how much better he really is.
After watching these videos, I was obsessed. Now sure, as a fan of the NBA, I can admit I’m a little biased here. But you can’t deny the sheer marketing brilliance behind this video series. First and foremost, there’s the obvious fact they’re trying to make the comparison between these NBA players and the qualities of their product, Pepsi MAX. Kyrie and Kevin may have appeared to be old, but they were by far the best players on the court. Accordingly, just because the Pepsi MAX can is labelled as a zero-calorie cola, Pepsi wants their target market to know that what’s inside still tastes great.
Secondly, the use of basketball superstars such as Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love are consistent with their intent for their product to be positioned as a men’s diet cola. As influencers within their target market, Pepsi aims to have an effect on customers’ decision journeys. For more on how influencers can affect decision journeys, check out my previous blog post titled Adidas Beliebes in Bieber.
Lastly, I couldn’t help but notice the impact that this viral video had. They initiated a conversation online which encouraged engagement through the Social Technographics Ladder. By applying social technographic segmentation, Pepsi’s viral video had an effect down the chain. “Creators” uploaded the video and wrote articles about it, 
“conversationalists” updated statuses about it through their various social media platforms, “critics” commented and shared their views, and “joiners” and “spectators” were then exposed to the brand by viewing the video, and reading the content from the “conversationalists” and “critics”. By creating a video that triggered such positive reactions from the first three groups, Pepsi indirectly had an impact on the “joiner” and “spectator” groups as well.
“Kyrie Irving” and “uncledrew” trending on Twitter
Five days after the first video was released, it received 3.1 million views, and 20,000 likes on YouTube. A month later, Sam Duboff (a spokesperson for the brand) said that 80% of the viewers had actually gone back to re-watch the video at some point in time. It was so popular that it was then turned into a 30-second commercial that ran during the NBA Finals last season which resulted in the hashtag #uncledrew to trend worldwide on Twitter. If you ask me, there’s no doubt that Uncle Drew was a slam dunk for Pepsi.