Brandi Ray
Senior Director of Marketing, Energy Portfolio
PepsiCo
Brandi Ray is the Sr. Marketing Director, Communications for the Energy Portfolio. In this role, Brandi leads the overall Communications, Equity and Media plans for PepsiCo’s newest acquisition- Rockstar Energy and our newest launch MTN DEW RISE Energy.
She most recently joined the Energy team from the Frito-Lay Division, where she had various roles across brand, shopper, field marketing, portfolio marketing, and innovation over the past 10 years. Most recently, Brandi led the growth strategy, communication, and commercialization agenda for Cheetos. In this role, Brandi was responsible for setting the brand growth strategy and vision for Frito-Lay’s 3rd Largest Global Brand. Since joining Cheetos is June of 2018, Brandi has led the team to deliver a new transformational strategy on Cheetos which is resulting in the business delivering ahead of business plan. She led the team to launch the biggest innovation on Cheetos in the past 10 years with Cheetos Popcorn, and launched it on the biggest stage- Super Bowl LIV in February 2020. This was the brand’s return to the Super Bowl for the first time in 11 years, and the ad “Can’t Touch This” made Top 10 on the USA Today Ad Meter- and the #1 :30 spot in the game. Under her leadership, she advanced the brand on the path to be PepsiCo’s newest $2B brand in 2020.
Brandi began her PepsiCo career in summer of 2009, as an intern at Frito-Lay, working on a marketing strategy project for the Women’s Portfolio. In 2010, Brandi started full-time at Frito-Lay and has had several roles including on the All Natural Portfolio Communication Team, Field Marketing Team in the South Business Unit, the Lay’s Brand Team leading the first-ever—Lay’s Do Us A Flavor Campaign, the Tostitos & SunChips Innovation Team, and the Digital Shopper Conversion Team in PepsiCo’s Demand Xcelerator Shopper Marketing. Most recently as the Director on Ruffles, Brandi led a team to deliver PepsiCo’s newest $1B brand, by unlocking growth on Ruffles through Equity, Engagement, and Partnership with the NBA.
She received her Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and her Master of Business Administration from the Goizueta Business School at Emory University. She is also a Consortium for Graduate Study in Management Fellow. An Atlanta native, Brandi loves spending time with family and friends. She has a passion for mentoring and unleashing the next generation of talent in the organization. She has led the Frito-Lay Marketing Diversity Recruiting Team supporting PepsiCo’s Diversity & Inclusion Agenda and is a recipient of the Frito-Lay Inclusion Award. Currently, Brandi is the National Board Co-Lead of PepsiCo’s African-American Employee Resource Group, Mosaic, with the vision of making PepsiCo a premier company of African-American talent globally. She also helped shape and execute PepsiCo’s commitment to the Racial Equality Journey for African-Americans with an investment of $430 MM over the next 5 years. In 2020, she was recognized as one of Business Insiders Inaugural Top 25 List of Rising Stars in Marketing. She was also selected as Top 40 Under 40 at her alma mater- Emory University. In June 2021, Brandi and her team received recognition from her Cheetos 2020 Super Bowl LIV Campaign with a Cannes Lions Grand Prix Creative Strategy win for “Can’t Touch This”. Two weeks ago, Brandi was honored on Ad Age’s 40 Under 40 list!.