The music festival, that most durable of marketing platforms, has found yet another willing dance partner in Coca-Cola, which has added a new event to its already considerable roster of summer sponsorships.

The beverage giant has signed on as a partner of PJ Fest, a traveling celebration of Latin music and culture that TelevisaUnivision created this year as an extension of its Premios Juventud awards show. The festival, which is new, visited Houston, Miami, Los Angeles and Marbella, Spain, over a week in late August and early September, timed to land just before Hispanic Heritage Month.

For Coca-Cola, which has sponsored the Premios Juventud awards for nine years and has maintained a three-decade relationship with the Essence Festival of Culture, the partnership represents another entry in what has become a familiar playbook: appear at events where young consumers gather to hear music, and hope some of the cultural warmth transfers to the brand. (The strategy has not exactly been a secret since at least the 1970s.)

"This is one of those awards programs that has one of the younger audience pools versus other similar music awards programs or music shows," said Stephanie Eaddy, cultural marketing lead at the Coca-Cola Company. "We like that it reaches a younger Gen Z audience for us."

Ms. Eaddy said the company worked with its bottling and retail partners in local markets to execute activations, including something called Casa Creator, which was designed to amplify the festival's reach through content creators. The brand also presented an award during the televised ceremony honoring emerging female artists.

Claribel Herrera, associate director of Así Studios at TelevisaUnivision, said the festival grew from research indicating the network's audience wanted real-life experiences to accompany their screen time. She credited Coca-Cola as an eager partner, noting the company's existing festival infrastructure.

"They were really big on being where 'la gente' is," Ms. Herrera said.

The awards show, which was broadcast from Spain, honored artists including Ángela Aguilar, Marc Anthony and Antonio Banderas — a generational spread that suggests the "juventud" in the title should perhaps be interpreted loosely.

Original story published in campaignlive.com: "Coca-Cola and TelevisaUnivision bring more ‘ritmo’ to Gen Z Hispanics with PJ Fest | Campaign US"