There’s so much to talk about on the Gatorade front. New packaging, new positioning for the products. Go to their website to see how it all breaks out, and I’ll follow up with some thoughts soon. But their new TV advertising is fresh in my head, having seen it on the BCS games today.
When I saw the ads, I thought of this Apple commercial. It’s one of my favorite ads of all time.
First of all, it’s beautifully written. A wonderful manipulation of language within a scant sixty seconds. Excellence and moderation.
The message glows equally bright. A forward thinking company connecting itself to some of the most forward thinking people who ever lived. A creative company trying to appeal to millions of creative thinkers, encouraging them to join other originals who weren’t afraid to think differently. Or Think Different, as Apple’s somewhat grammatically incorrect tagline exhorted us to do.
Talk about building a relationship and cultivating loyalty.
Like Apple, Gatorade is a great American brand that constantly needs to stay current to maintain its iconic status with young cultural trendsetters and influencers in the world of sports. So after years of colored sweat, Gatorade is headed in another direction.
And it is most definitely different.
I can’t find the ads online yet but I’ll post them as soon as I do. If you see them, please pass them along. The ads on today’s games were teasers for a big reveal that’s reportedly airing on the Super Bowl in a month.
I give PepsiCo credit for “Thinking different.“ They’re not afraid to change. They’ve already demonstrated this with their Pepsi marketing, and they’re turning their lust for change to Gatorade.
To quote the Apple ad, “They have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them.”
I think these ads are hard to ignore. And along with the new packaging, I do think they’ll change things for Gatorade. My early observation is, it won’t be change for the better. So far, it all seems messy and random. Bold, yes, but confusing.
But I'm a big fan of change when it's change for the better. So let’s see what they show us on February 1.
The packaging? Well, that's a different story...
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2 comments:
Visited your blog for the first time today, so I knew that G had broken new stuff. Then saw "What is G" on TV. Googled Jabbawokeez." (What is a Jabba?) First site that came up was "what'sg1965" on youtube. Six "entertainment" G videos: comedy, gangsta rap, poetry. Find your inner G. Appears they want to inflitrate culture, particularly urban male culture, beyond sports.
Sports was relevant when Gatorade was a sports drink. But Gatorade is gone and G is in it's place. With G, what's relevant is culture and cool, with some sports thrown in. It'll be very interesting to see how that meshes with a functional beverage.
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