Squeezing a supply deal with the Colombian national team to create the cheapest prime-time ads ever made, Gatorade Colombia leveraged fan-shot images showing players drinking from Gatorade bottles into in-game ads.
Territory: Colombia
Agency: Sancho BBDO & MONPOZT
Objective:
Hiring the biggest football stars as Gatorade ambassadors is a hugely expensive endeavour and one that is beyond Gatorade Colombia’s marketing budget.
So agency Sancho BBDO was tasked to create a campaign with Colombia’s leading soccer stars from the national team – including James, Cuadrado, Mina, Zapata – without having to pay big bucks for either sponsoring the team or recruiting elite player ambassadors and only leveraging the fact that the product appears on the field of play during game breaks via a team supply tie-up.
Activation:
The marketing team invited Colombians to do the hard work for it in real time during the most expensive broadcasts of all – during Colombia’s matches in the 2019 Copa America.
The idea was for viewers watching the games on TV to take a picture every time one of the players drunk Gatorade on the screen during a game – all from the comfort of their own home – and share them on their social media platforms with the hashtags #FCFSeleccioncol #CoppaAmerica and tagging @GatoradeColombia.
Participation was incentivised by giving away branded the very same Gatorade squeezy bottles that appeared on the pitch to those who submitted a photo.
The team thus leveraged the live broadcasts by fans to photograph the players while they were drinking Gatorade and share the photos socially.
Outcome:
The agency claims that it saved millions on production costs and endorsement fees and yet still achieved 17% engagement (which was 44X more than other official advertisers and team sponsors). The agency’s other key success metric was a 99% share of voice.
Plus, every Gatorade squeezy bottle given away cost Gatorade just $1.
Comment:
Big brands always hire big celebrities….right? Well, not always! Why not get fans to create ads featuring big name sports stars drinking your product….for next to nothing?
Links:
Gatorade Colombia
https://www.facebook.com/gatoradecolombia/
https://www.instagram.com/gatoradecolombia
Sancho BBDO
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