10Meters News Report

May 24, 2001 – Pepsi is teaming with Small Planet to create a platform where player can compete in "virtual football" games on mobile devices and the Internet.

Called Pepsi Foot, the game allows a player to challenge another player via Small Planet's SMS messaging service. To support play, the companies are sponsoring a Web site, where players can follow the evolvement of their player profiles in real time and compare their skills with the profiles of top players.

Games are initiated by "challenging players," who play on the Pepsi team, along with sports celebrities such as David Beckham and Mikael Forssell. The challenged player competes with Manchester United. Players are automatically entered in a contest that features a trip to a Manchester United match as first prize.

The Pepsi Foot game works on Small Planet's CollectM.2 platform, according to Small Planet CEO Rami Ryhanen. "This is just the beginning for utilizing concepts based on wireless technology in business operations," said Ryhanen. "Companies are starting to realize the opportunities mobile concepts entail."

The core target group for the game is 12-19 year-olds, said PepsiCo Nordic Finland's marketing manager Harry Skon. Some of the pastimes important to this group are combined in Pepsi Foot in an interesting and new manner – role-playing, SMS messaging and football, he noted.