Protecting a Pepsi & Lay's promo against 1.5M automated registrations a day

How SiARA Shield helped protect a high-volume US consumer sweepstakes while preserving legitimate customer participation.

RTM-operated Pepsi and Lay's Let's Summer promotional campaign website
RTM-operated promotional website for the Pepsi & Lay's consumer campaign.

A major Pepsi & Lay's consumer promotional sweepstakes — operated by RealTime Media (RTM) in the United States — was receiving approximately 1.5 million suspected automated registrations per day, despite existing Google reCAPTCHA protection.

How do you stop that volume without blocking genuine entrants?

After RTM integrated SiARA Shield into the promotional journey, suspected automated registrations fell to near zero within approximately 24 hours, while legitimate participation remained around 200,000 users per day.

The campaign team reduced manual filtering, operational overhead and data-quality pressure — without making the customer journey harder for real consumers.

At a glance

Pepsi & Lay's consumer promotion

Brand
Pepsi & Lay's
Operator
RealTime Media (RTM)
Region
United States
Use case
Sweepstakes protection
Channel
Promotional website
Existing control
Google reCAPTCHA
Solution
SiARA Shield by CyberSiARA
Protection layer
Application-layer behavioural analysis and human verification
Objective
Stop suspected automation while keeping legitimate participation stable
Key results

Automation collapsed. Participation held.

~1.5M / day

suspected automated registrations before SiARA Shield deployment.

Near zero

suspected automated registrations within approximately 24 hours.

~200K / day

legitimate users remained stable throughout the observed period.

Less manual work

far fewer suspicious registrations required investigation and clean-up.

The challenge

Protect campaign integrity without friction

The campaign was experiencing approximately 1.5 million suspected automated registrations every day. That volume significantly exceeded genuine participation and created an ongoing burden for campaign operations.

Google reCAPTCHA was already deployed as the existing anti-spam control, yet high volumes of suspected automated registrations continued. The team needed stronger protection without making the customer journey more difficult for genuine entrants.

Protecting promotional registrations against automated abuse
High-volume promotional registrations needed stronger protection beyond CAPTCHA alone.
The business risk

Automation at this scale hurts the campaign

At this volume, automation can distort campaign data, increase infrastructure processing, create prize-abuse exposure, undermine promotional fairness, and consume staff time through continuous investigation and manual filtering.

The objective was not to reduce traffic indiscriminately. It was to remove suspected automation while keeping genuine consumer participation stable.

Consumer
Promo site
SiARA Shield Behavioural analysis · Human verification
Risk decision
Allow / block

Protection operates close to the customer registration journey — with low friction for legitimate users.

The CyberSiARA approach

Application-layer protection on the registration journey

SiARA Shield assessed interaction behaviour and risk in real time, identifying suspected automated registrations before they progressed — while allowing legitimate consumers to continue with minimal friction.

Real-time behavioural assessment

Assess interaction behaviour and risk as registrations occur on the promotional site.

Stop automation early

Identify suspected automated registrations before they progress into normal campaign processing.

Low-friction for consumers

Allow legitimate consumers to continue entering without unnecessary challenge or interruption.

Less manual filtering

Reduce the volume requiring investigation, clean-up and ongoing operational review.

Risk-based response

Suspicious automation can be blocked before it distorts campaign data and prize integrity.

Measurable results

Suspected automation fell. Humans stayed.

Within approximately 24 hours of SiARA Shield integration, suspected automated registrations fell from about 1.5 million per day to near zero. Legitimate consumer activity remained around 200,000 users per day.

That distinction protects both security outcomes and campaign performance — cleaner data, stronger integrity and a stable experience for real entrants.

Illustrative multi-day trend for visual context. Day 0 marks SiARA Shield activation. Intermediate daily points are not measured campaign data; the chart is anchored to the reported ~1.5M pre-deployment average, near-zero automation within ~24 hours, and ~200K stable legitimate daily activity.
Security & business impact

Cleaner data. Stronger campaign integrity.

Stronger protection reduced operational burden while genuine participation remained stable — protecting both security outcomes and promotional fairness.

See what is really reaching your application — without unnecessary friction for real users.

Impact after deployment

  • Reduced manual filtering — far fewer suspicious registrations required investigation and clean-up.
  • Cleaner campaign data — metrics more closely reflected genuine consumer participation.
  • Campaign integrity — reduced exposure to automated entry and promotional abuse.
  • Experience maintained — genuine participation remained stable despite stronger protection.
Why it matters

CAPTCHA alone was not enough for this volume

High-volume consumer promotions attract sophisticated automation that can pass traditional challenge controls and still flood registration journeys.

This deployment shows how SiARA Shield can protect sweepstakes integrity at scale — collapsing suspected automation while keeping legitimate consumers in the funnel.

Campaign performance figures are based on operational information provided in relation to the RealTime Media-managed Pepsi & Lay's promotional deployment. PepsiCo/Frito-Lay brands were associated with the promotion; CyberSiARA's deployment relationship was through RTM. Figures are approximate and should not be interpreted as independently published PepsiCo performance statistics. The promotional website screenshot is reproduced solely to illustrate deployment context. CyberSiARA claims no ownership of the campaign creative, Pepsi, Lay's, Frito-Lay, PepsiCo or RTM trademarks or associated intellectual property.

See what is reaching your applications

Protect high-volume journeys without hurting real users.

SiARA Shield by CyberSiARA helps distinguish legitimate users from sophisticated automated activity — without unnecessary friction.