Experiential marketing is a proven motivator of creating an emotional engagement with the audience and this campaign by Gatorade is a great example of how a brand can utilise experiential marketing to make their sponsorship activity memorable.
To get people to experience what the Gatorade brand stands for – a catalyst for athletic achievement – and to demonstrate that the product can function as fuel for athletic performance, the brand has reunited the original players from two 1993 high school football teams from Pennsylvania and New Jersey to replay a classic football match that ended up in a tie.
Gatorade trained and coached the former athletes and helped prepare them for the big rematch. During the 90 days of training the brand recorded a 5-part documentary series following the player’s journey, which was released online before the match.
The campaign created a genuine news interest and turned into a brilliant case study to inspire other former athletes around the world. As we covered on our Thought Leadership article about experiential sponsorship activation, “grabbing the right consumers’ attention, motivating them to talk about their real experiences and allowing them to relive over and over again will help your sponsorship spend go further by immersing consumers in your brand, resulting in affinity and brand-loyalty”.
Check out the full case study video below.