Australia – As part of its latest brand refresh, Pepsi has partnered with emerging Australian designer Jackson Cowden and Special PR agency to launch the ‘Pepsi Pulse Collection’ that brings back the classic fashion staples.
Pepsi’s innovative partnership with Cowden and Special PR not only celebrates its new identity but also the reinvention of classic fashion items and conventions.
The ‘Pepsi Pulse Collection’ is an AI-first capsule collection that challenges the status quo of traditional design. Composed of a bespoke 10-piece strong collection designed distinctly AI first, the designs take inspiration from Pepsi’s new brand look and refreshing old familiar fashion staples such as the little black dress and the classic white shirt, with modernity injected through innovative AI methods.
Considered to be a ‘digital fashion artist’, Cowden leveraged the AI fashion technology approach to complete the final designs in 40 days, minimising waste, saving time, and pushing the boundaries of fashion traditions. By leveraging AI, the designer was able to skip the usual traditional design methods of sketching, pattern making, and multiple sample rounds that would normally take up to nine months to complete.
Pepsi formally launched its Pulse Collection in a runway show on Sydney’s iconic harbour with the help of Australia’s event and experience creator, Rizer. The runway was live-streamed via oOh!media’s full-motion site in The Bourke in Melbourne. In a first for oOh!media’s innovation and creative hub, POLY, managed the end-to-end production from broadcast to delivery.
The ‘Pepsi Pulse Runway Collection’ is rolled out across experiential, earned, social, and OOH.
Speaking on the launch, Alex Bryant, managing director at Special PR, said, “Finding an interesting way to celebrate such an iconic brand’s refresh was an amazing challenge for us in our first major campaign for Special PR for Pepsi. Taking inspiration from an industry that knows how to reinvent and refresh, we were delighted to find a shared vision with fashion designer and Creative Director for the collection, Jackson Cowden. This campaign launch demonstrates how Pepsi continues to challenge conventions, pushes the boundaries, and always puts enjoyment first.”
Vandita Pandey, chief marketing officer of ANZ for snacks and beverages at PepsiCo Australia, also shared, “Following on from hugely successful global launches in other markets, we really wanted our local launch to feel relevant to our culturally thirsty, next generation drinkers in Australia. Pepsi supports the next generation of creators and designers. With our new visual identity being bold, unapologetic, modern, and iconic, we wanted to partner with a young designer who could put a unique take on our refresh. It was a privilege to be able to support Jackson in launching his first runway show.”
Meanwhile, Zoe Bailey, creative director at Rizer, said, “Jackson’s digital design process formed a huge inspiration in creating an unconventional runway show, with the energy of Pepsi’s bold identity. Embracing the unconventional, we blur the lines between fashion, animation, lighting, sound, dance, and performance, all in one story.”
Also commenting on the launch, designer and creative director Cowden shared, “It’s been incredibly significant for me to partner with Pepsi at this point in my career, a partnership born of our shared values around challenging the status quo, pushing the unconventional, and searching for new and bold ways of doing things.”
He added, “The Pepsi Pulse Collection does exactly that and more by transcending traditional boundaries and challenging conventional norms. The Pepsi “Pulse” is an illustrative way to tell different stories for the brand; it is Pepsi’s visual response to the beat of culture, reflecting the pulse of the worlds we are immersed in. Increasingly, in the near future, fashion designers will be drawn towards digital fashion design, with ‘preconceived rules’ in creative fields abandoned. Pepsi is known for keeping their finger on the culture pulse, and the innovative and creative way this collection has come to life further proves this.”
