Marketing Veteran Resigns From PepsiCo

By VALERIE BAUERLEIN and SUZANNE VRANICA

"PepsiCo Inc.'s North American beverage marketing chief, Dave Burwick, resigned Friday, becoming the latest of a number of marketers to leave the food and beverage giant over the past year.

Mr. Burwick, who is 47 years old, had worked his way up over two decades from an entry-level position to oversee marketing of Pepsi-Cola, Gatorade and other beverages at the Purchase, N.Y., company. He was in charge of implementing its high-profile "Refresh Everything" campaign, changing the look of PepsiCo's biggest beverage brands.

He told colleagues in an email Friday that he planned to search for a "general management role" elsewhere. Quoting the late Michael Jackson, Pepsi's onetime pitchman, he said he had looked at "the man in the mirror" and decided it was "time for me to make a change and chart a new course."

Since last summer, several marketing executives have departed the company, including Rick Gomez, a vice president in the North American beverage unit, who is now at brewer MillerCoors LLC, and Jeff Urban, senior vice president of sports marketing for Gatorade. Cie Nicholson, Mr. Burwick's predecessor, resigned a year ago, and Russell Weiner, former vice president of marketing of colas for North America, left last fall for Domino's Pizza Inc.

PepsiCo spokeswoman Julie Hamp said some turnover is to be expected as Chief Executive Indra Nooyi, who took over in late 2006, has streamlined operating units. "There haven't just been marketing changes," Ms. Hamp said. "There's been a dramatic remake of the entire beverage business."

That includes hiring new talent, such as Tom Silk, a former marketing director for Activision Blizzard Inc.'s Guitar Hero videogame franchise who is now vice president of hydration at PepsiCo, Ms. Hamp said. The company also hired Sarah Robb O'Hagan, formerly Nike Inc.'s Western Region brand manager, as the chief marketing officer of Gatorade.

The changes have come as PepsiCo has been trying to reinvigorate sales of some of its top beverage brands. The company has said it is pleased with makeovers introduced this year of the Pepsi-Cola, Gatorade, and Tropicana brands, which have included new packaging and advertising.

But it also acknowledges bumps in the road. In February, Pepsi dropped new packaging for Tropicana juice after consumers complained about the generic-looking carton that replaced the familiar picture of an orange with a straw. Gatorade sales slid 17.5% in the first six months of this year despite a new campaign branding the sports drink "G."

PepsiCo also shook up its relationships on Madison Avenue. After decades of service, it dumped Omnicom Group Inc.'s BBDO from the Pepsi brand business and Omnicom's Element 79 from Gatorade, among others. BBDO's work with the beverage and snack food giant was considered one of the ad industry's longest and most-prolific relationships, spawning successful ad pitches like the catchy 1980s slogan: "Pepsi. The Choice of a New Generation."

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