At Cannes Lions 2025, Jane Wakely, Chief Marketing and Growth Officer for PepsiCo Foods, laid out a blueprint for how creativity fuels business results when it lives far beyond the ad brief. From regenerative farming and local flavour strategy to street food ecosystems and cultural stunts, her message was clear: growth comes from understanding people, food, and culture in context—and building systems that let creativity flow end to end.
Challenger Mindset at Scale
The session opened with a question that guided Pepsi’s brand work: “Who deserves happiness?” A sentiment simple enough to fit on a matchbox, but powerful enough to shape strategy. That thinking helped redefine Pepsi as more than a soft drink—it became a connector, appearing in daily food rituals, new restaurant partnerships, and unexpected retail formats.
The results included deeper distribution across independent outlets and richer food-and-drink experiences.
Leading With Food
Wakely reminded the audience that 60% of PepsiCo’s global revenue comes from food, not beverages. Understanding food culture—regional taste, local rituals, emotional memory—has become central to how the business grows.
In India, Lay’s worked with 27,000 farmers to develop Smart Farm, an AI-driven crop management system. Using satellite imagery, the tool detects early signs of disease, water stress, and nutrient deficiency. Farmers receive real-time colour-coded alerts, allowing for early intervention. “It even recognised that I have a faulty sprinkler,” one farmer shared.
This system supports PepsiCo’s commitment to 10 million acres of regenerative farming by 2030. Over 3.5 million have already been converted. The impact is both environmental and operational—strengthening supply and brand trust.
Getting Closer to What People Eat
In some markets, up to 40% of consumers didn’t know Lay’s were made from real potatoes. The US team responded with a farmer-focused ad—no celebrities, just a clean story about quality. It became the top-rated ad in a USA Today poll.
Flamin’ Hot and the Art of Expansion
The Flamin’ Hot flavour platform is now worth over $4.5 billion and operates in 70+ countries. It began in Mexico with one insight: people deny when spice is too much. The brand leaned into that with humour, local adaptation, and scale.
When Brands Follow Culture
In Mexico, local food entrepreneurs were taking Tostitos chips, slicing open the bags, and turning them into full meals. PepsiCo didn’t shut it down. They leaned in—opening Rico Tostitos, partnering with 10,000 micro food vendors, and reimagining the brand as a meal base rather than a snack.
Penetration jumped eight percentage points. The brand became more useful, more embedded in street food culture, and more local—without losing global consistency.
Distinctive Strategy That Lasts
Cheetos offered a final example. A five-year creative platform built around a simple behaviour: people eat Cheetos with their dominant hand, leaving the other hand to do everything else.
This became an integrated campaign that ran across digital, OOH, social, and even the Super Bowl. It didn’t just reinforce brand assets. It created behaviour-based brand salience.
The result: consistent distinctiveness, high memorability, and a platform that invites culture to play with the brand. “Our teams have a lot of fun,” Wakely said, “but it’s always tied to growth.”
Three Ideas to Take Away
Wakely closed with three lessons for any brand or industry:
- Widen the lens: Don’t define your category by its current use. Look at what surrounds it.
- Micro to macro: Big ideas often come from local truths. Link them to something universal.
- Creativity is a growth tool: Point creative energy at the biggest business opportunity. Not at noise.