Non-sponsor Pepsi taps into World Cup

Pepsi-Cola is not an official World Cup sponsor but it still plans to spend 100 million baht on football-themed marketing to challenge arch-rival and official sponsor Coca-Cola this year. Pepsi plans various sports-related campaigns from now through June, including Pepsi Football 2006, which will feature 11 of the world's greatest football players in its advertising and on limited-edition cans.

''Though we are not a sponsor of the 2006 World Cup, we are confident that our football campaign will be as successful as in the past two World Cup tournaments,'' said Charlie Jitcharoongphorn, marketing director of Pepsi-Cola (Thai) Trading Co.

On the back of the campaigns, the company expects the cola market share of Pepsi to increase to 64% by the end of this year. Last year the company claimed a 63.5% share in Thailand, one of the few countries where it leads Coke.

Sales of Pepsi last year grew by 8%, compared to 3% for the soft-drink market.