Ad Age | How Pepsi is hyping its star-studded Super Bowl halftime show

Pepsi-Cola will skip running an in-game Super Bowl ad for the second straight year to pour all of its Big Game marketing behind its halftime show sponsorship.

The hype begins today with the release of what the brand describes as a “trailer” for the show, which stars Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Mary J. Blige and Kendrick Lamar. The lineup, which was curated by Jay Z’s Roc Nation, assembles some of the biggest hip hop legends in music history.

The Feb. 13 show at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles is expected to pay homage to the West Coast music scene. The trailer, called “The Call,” portrays the stars honing their crafts before assembling for the performance.

The video includes plenty of Pepsi branding. It was directed by F. Gary Gray, whose credits include the 2015 film “Straight Outta Compton.” The production company is Radical Media with Barking Owl handling sound and The Mill on visual effects.

“We wanted to make sure it was cinematic in terms of the epicness and scale that only this kind of show deserves,” Pepsi Marketing VP Todd Kaplan said. As for the decision to forego a traditional in-game ad, he said: “This is our biggest brand asset in the game—the 12 minutes of the show itself—and we think we can create engaging and entertaining content for our fans for weeks, bring them closer to the experience, and still deliver our objective on game day of winning share of voice as the most talked about brand.”

Discover the full story via AdAge. Stay tuned for more features by The Mill at Super Bowl 56.