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Any place Guy Fieri takes his brand is Flavortown, but even big partners like Pepsi realize that Las Vegas holds that title more often than most.
Before he became a culinary celebrity, Fieri was a student at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, pursuing a degree in hotel management. Although he never ended up running a Vegas hotel, his Vegas Kitchen + Bar sits on the Strip at The Linq, his Flavortown Sports Kitchen is less than a block down at The Horseshoe and his El Burro Borracho lies just west on Flamingo at Rio Hotel & Casino.
As Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas prepares to host Super Bowl 58, Fieri is inviting a few of his brand friends for a free party (and some sports marketing) on game day. Partnering with management and promotion company Medium Rare—which also hosts Super Bowl events headlined by Shaquille O’Neal, Rob Gronkowski and Sports Illustrated—Fieri brings the Guy Fieri’s Flavortown Tailgate Is Better With Pepsi event to a space centrally located along the strip.
With its name on the five-hour event, Pepsi has a Better With Pepsi bar set up for the festivities, as well as beverage pairings with dozens of Taste of Las Vegas and Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives chefs. Otherwise, it’s a clearinghouse of more than one-dozen brands—including Caesars, Anheuser-Busch, Papa John’s, Tyson Foods and Cash App—sponsoring a performance by country music star Dustin Lynch and a special country set from Diplo.
“I can’t say to anybody, ‘Hey, you’re in Vegas, get yourself some sleep,’” Fieri told Adweek. “We’re not going to come to Vegas and disappoint: We’ve got 15,000 residents of Flavortown coming to this event … we are going to go big.”
Although last year’s inaugural Flavortown Tailgate at Super Bowl 57 in Arizona drew upwards of 10,000 people, even a Vegas bump this year leaves it well short of the tens of millions of viewers Pepsi once attracted as sponsor of the Super Bowl’s halftime show in 2007 and from 2018 through 2022.
And while Lynch and Diplo may not have the reach of Beyoncé, Lady Gaga or the late Prince, events like the Flavortown Tailgate—as Pepsi discovered with its 125 Diner experience in New York this year—get the product into people’s hands and help brands interact more directly with fans than they can through an ad or broadcast sponsorship.
“Brands are no longer just talking at consumers: They’re engaging with consumers, having a one-on-one dialog and finding ways for consumers to opt into our brand experiences where they can share them with their own audiences on social media,” said Pepsi chief marketing officer Todd Kaplan. “Finding ways that people can go down the rabbit hole with our brands and with our brand partners and still have a consumer experience that will deepen that brand connection and love is something we’re excited to do.”
