Pepsi returns to Super Bowl with ads for Max

Pepsi's back in the Big Game in a big way.

Just one year after spurning the Super Bowl to focus on online social media, Pepsi will flaunt its struggling Pepsi Max product in TV ads — with a strong social-media tilt. The PepsiCo-owned cola giant will use the consumer-generated Super Bowl ad strategy that's been so successful in recent years for PepsiCo's Frito-Lay Doritos snack brand.

Three 30-second Pepsi Max spots will air, along with three spots for Doritos in the Feb. 6 game on Fox. The six spots for the two brands will make PepsiCo one of the game's biggest ad spenders.

PepsiCo is "doubling down," says Rudy Wilson, marketing chief at Frito-Lay. PepsiCo bought three slots for Doritos last year (and snared a last-minute fourth).

The move signals how competitive it is for ad time in this Super Bowl. Fox has sold more than 90% of the ad slots, says Lou D'Ermilio, senior vice president at Fox Sports Media Group.

USA TODAY AD METER: Revisit the Super Bowl ads

D'Ermilio declined to say how many slots remain or name other advertisers, though Anheuser-Busch, GoDaddy.com and Hyundai have said they'll be in again.

For now, Pepsi's return stands out as the Super Bowl's most compelling marketing story.

"It's a very big deal that Pepsi's back in," says Beverage Digest editor John Sicher. "The campaign will automatically get tremendous exposure."

It has to be a relief for the National Football League and its partner TV networks, shaken last season when perennial Super Bowl ad powerhouse Pepsi abandoned the game for online social media.

"We've always said the Super Bowl makes a ton of sense when it's right for your brand," Lauren Hobart, CMO for sparkling beverages at PepsiCo Beverage America. She said the importance of social media to Pepsi remains huge and the "Pepsi Refresh" campaign will go on.

For its ads, Pepsi Max will join Doritos in offering up to $5 million in prizes to consumers who create ads that win, or finish high, in USA TODAY's annual Super Bowl Ad Meter that tracks and ranks the real-time responses to ads during the game by a panel of consumers.

For Pepsi Max, the high-profile move is about focusing its somewhat confusing image. A new campaign has helped sales, but it still lags behind more successful rival Coke Zero. Pepsi Max's challenge is marketing itself as a diet drink without using the word "diet," off-putting particularly to males.

"We're trying to drive awareness that this is a zero calorie drink with maximum taste," Hobart says.