PLANO, Texas PepsiCo Inc.'s Frito-Lay North America launched a new campaign for its flagship Lay's brand over the Memorial Day weekend that for the first time features the four distinct varieties of its potato chip, reported The Wall Street Journal.
New TV ads, lasting 15 and 30 seconds, began airing on network and cable channels Friday night and will continue through the key summer selling season, said the report. Frito-Lay wanted the new "Choices" ads to break on Memorial Day weekend, one of the biggest periods for snack sales, it added.
This umbrella ad campaign combines Lay's classic potato chips, Lay's Stax, Lay's Light and Lay's kettle chips. The tagline is "Lay's...Get Your Smile On," which debuted earlier this year.
"This portfolio umbrella approach will be our platform for Lay's for some time, Lora DeVuono, vice president of advertising at Frito-Lay, Plano, Texas, told the newspaper.
Lay's advertising has traditionally focused on the classic brand and the theme of big parties and family gatherings, the report said. DeVuono said the new ads, through a series of vignettes, paint a bigger picture of "cross-generational and cross-cultural" activities involving Lay's products.
The new campaign is part of Frito-Lay's effort to win a larger share of the overall snack food market and challenge makers of crackers, cookies and yogurt more directly, the Journal said.
According to the report, Irene Rosenfeld, head of Frito-Lay, has said the company cannot be satisfied with its 65% share of the U.S. salty-snack market. Lay's is the top-selling U.S. potato chip with about $2.5 billion in sales. This year, Pepsi boosted its ad spending at Frito-Lay by 50% to roughly $150 million, the report said.
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