Pepsi Max x Eintracht Frankfurt Collaboration

Pepsi saw the opportunity for the Pepsi MAX® to become a canvas that celebrates both partners’ joint values and challenger spirits. To engage the club’s loyal fan following, Pepsi decided to tell an authentic, distinctive story about these two brands being united by their love for “the beautiful game” and the City of Frankfurt. Eintracht is more than just a football club, Eintracht IS Frankfurt. “Frankfurt United” became the conceptual hook that enabled Pepsi MAX to tell an emotionally anchored and authentic brand collaboration story through focusing on the crucial role the club plays in the city culture.

The Design Team took inspiration from the Bauhaus visual aesthetic, ensuring the expression was bold and unapologetically German. The simple use of red, white, and black binds the clubʼs colors with those of Pepsi MAX, communicating a passion of equal measure. They created a custom typeface for the collaboration (SGE SANS), building on historic Germanic typographic qualities while reflecting the confidence and angularity of Pepsi patterns and visual palette.

The results of the Pepsi MAX x Frankfurt Eintracht Collaboration were successful, with ROS Ix 200 vs. Pepsi MAX standard can in the fan region (Source: Nielsen 3A Gebiet, CSD, July-Dec 2022). Building on the popularity of the collaboration, Pepsi is continuing its partnership with the club to create a permanent range of merchandise and fashion apparel that will be sold in the stadium and regional fan stores.

The Design Team dove deep into the history and heritage of the club, enabling them to deliver this concept with a distinctive and iconic visual tone that would allow fans to take a modern, yet familiar, piece of visual club history home with them. The Design Team created a visual metaphor for Frankfurt United. Taking a bird’s eye view of the city, they flooded Frankfurtʼs neighborhoods with the club’s historic visual devices: iconic kit stripes, badge, club chants, and more. he ultimate aim with this collaboration was to leverage the partnership to drive greater reach, relevance, and authentic connection with fans, amp up the buzz through cultural disruption, and increase desirability as an associated partnership for both Pepsi MAX and Eintracht Frankfurt. To truly drive talkability and desirability, the Design Team created limited edition influencer kits that contained customized Pepsi MAX x Eintracht football jerseys, product, and VIP lounge experiences. The kits were made entirely from recycled plastic bottles and the influencer boxes from 100% recycled materials.