Gatorade leveraged the NBA Finals to launch a reworked version of its iconic ‘Be Like Mike’ ad to lead a star-studded new ‘The Way To Be Great’ campaign featuring endorsers Serena Williams and Lionel Messi alongside a new generation of sports stars such as hoops phenomenon Jayson Tatum, WNBA ace Elena Delle Donne, MLB slugger Bryce Harper, Olympic gold medal track athlete Sydney McLaughlin and, of course, as Michael Jordan.
Developed with agency TBWA\Chiat\Day LA, the campaign aims to bridge between generations – merging past, present and future – and is built around the idea that ‘greatness isn’t about what you’ve done, but rather about what you do next’.
Dropping from 9 June and debuting on air during Game 4 of the NBA Finals and will run through the hoops season climax, around the NBA Draft, as well as during WNBA games and coverage of the College Baseball World Series.
The PepsiCo brand’s multi-channel campaign was spearheaded by a hero 30-second spot spanning TV and online, which was initially teased socially before the full ‘The Way To Be Great’ release from 9 June.
The legendary ’90s ad jingle also returns alongside campaign MC Eminem who’s 2010 song ‘Won’t Back Down’ serves as the backing track.
“We know our brand has everything athletes need to fuel Greatness,” commented Gatorade Chief Brand Officer Anuj Bhasin. “We have fuelled the greatest athletes of all time over the last 60 years, and ‘The Way to Be Great’ is an anthemic campaign meant to bring to life what greatness has been, and what greatness looks like in the future.”
The campaign was created for and briefed by a Gatorade marketing team which included Chief Brand Officer Anuj Bhasin, Head of Consumer Engagement Brandi Ray, Consumer Engagement Director Oliver Schrickel, Brand Campaign Senior Marketing Manager Sydney Melville Brand, Campaign Marketing Associate Manager Alex Podges, Gatorade Sports Marketing Director Kyle Grote, Gatorade Sports Marketing Senior Managers Keri Lockett and Natalie Jones, Gatorade Sports Marketing Managers Rachel Condelli and Megan Koehnemann, Gatorade Sports Marketing Associate Manager Connor Wudrick, plus APR Cost Consultants Sharon Groh and Sheila Flaherty.
The campaign was conceived and created by a group at agency TBWA\CHIAT\DAY LA led by Executive Creative Director Desmond Marzette and Group Creative Director Mark Peters and which included Associate Creative Director – Art John Ross, Post Associate Creative Director – Copy Max Schein, Chief Design Officer Bruno Regalo, Associate Creative Director – Design Thiago Matsunaga, Senior Project Manager Alice Pavlisko, Director of Content Production Anh-Thu Le, Senior Producer Alyson Buoncristiani, Design Production Manager Alessandra Horn, Brand Director – Design Monica Gelbecke, Director of Business Affairs Robin Rossi, Associate BA Director Jennifer Anaya, Junior BA Manager Annabel Turrado, Talent Payment Manager Vanessa Contreras, Director of Traffic Operations Dessiah Davis, Senior Traffic Operations Manager Judy Brill, Senior Brand Director Robyn Morris, Account Director Gabriela Marino, Management Supervisor Audrey Sigel, Senior Account Executive Javier Hernandez, Executive Strategy Director Scott MacMaster, Group Strategy Director Martin Ramos, Associate Strategy Director Ryan Hagen, Strategist Trés Jones, Head of Connections Planning Stephanie Ehui and Connections Strategy Director David Heiser.
Production and post production were handled by a team at 1st Ave Machine which included Directors Sebastian Rodrigo Sanz and Hernan Aragunde, Partner & Executive Producer Sam Penfield, Executive Producer Ella Nuortila, Head of Production Mariajose Garica London, Line Producer Elizabeth Collins, Director Diego Berakha, Executive Producer Sabrina Elizondo, Post EP BA Alejandro Sparano, Line Producer Michelle Wejcman, Coordinators Nicolas Meiorin, Diego Atencio, Romina Vanney and Martin Camji Pfeiffer, Editors Mauro Caporossi and Lucas D’alo, Designers Diego Berakha, Sebastián Sarmiento, Adolfo Correa and Carlos Fernandez, 2D Animators Diego Berakha, Sebastián Sarmiento, Adolfo Correa, Carlos Fernandez and Matias Petroli.
Composition was handled by PIMBA! VFX and Bustamante Conform by MAWI with VFX Supervisors Diego Gambarotta and Ernesto Cespedes, while colour was by David Castañón Pesquera.
Sound design and mix was run through Lime Studios with Executive Producer Susie Boyajan, Mixer/Sound Designer Zac Fisher and Assistant Mixer Klaudia Bennett.
Comment
The campaign, which is essentially a star fuelled clip show commercial done right, is part of the current ad trend for nostalgia and the ‘90s revival, but blends it with a future facing, next gen approach.
Gatorade launched its most famous Jordan commercial, the iconic ‘Be Like Mike’ in 1991 and the tagline became a common consumer mantra all over the country.
In 2015 the sports drink giant aired a digitally re-mastered version of the original commercial (see case study).
Gatorade previously revived and reworked its iconic ‘Be Like Mike’ campaign to leverage the release of the smash ESPN documentary ‘The Last Dance’ in 2020.
Other recent nostalgic music marketing in the USA has included AAA Insurance’s use of 90s boy bands, Sprite remixing ‘Rapper’s Delight, Jack in the Box featuring Snoop Dogg classics and Goldfish updating Lisa Loeb’s ‘Stay’.
This is Gatorade’s first campaign under new Chief Brand Officer Anuj Bhasin.
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