Pepsi Q

PepsiCo plans to start its own record label in China for the purpose of cultivating music artists to use in its promotional and advertising campaigns, BusinessWeek has reported.

The label will be called QMusic.

Harry Hui, who has steered Pepsi’s successful marketing campaign in China, apparently has far-reaching connections in the recording industry. He was once the head of Universal Music in Asia and helped launch MTV Asia in the 1990s.

Pepsi is sponsoring “Battle of the Bands,” a reality TV show based on “American Idol.” Hui, in fact, is one of the judges for the show.
Ten bands are chosen as contestants and all perform on each of the 10 episodes, where they are rated on a week-to-week basis.

At the end, the band with the highest cumulative score wins a recording contract with QMusic. The winner will also be featured in a Pepsi commercial.

Pepsi is the sponsor of the USA pavilion at next year’s Shanghai World Expo and has a promotional deal with Jay Chou, one of the biggest Chinese-language pop stars in Asia.

Coca-Cola, which enjoys higher sales than Pepsi in China and was one of the main sponsors of the Beijing Olympics, will have its own pavilion at the Expo.