Results and Effectiveness

1) We proved Cricket players are athletes: 90% of cricket fans post the campaign said they now believed that cricket players were athletes, and our sponsorship awareness increase by nearly +9% 2) We drove purchase intent That all important Purchase intent score improved +6% from campaign pre-read and claimed consumption increased by 3% “PHD created a clearly defined and unique positioning for Gatorade that cut through the competitive clutter whilst remaining truly relevant to the brand and the product” Roger Edmonds Gatorade Brand Manager Aus and NZ (Source: Nine insight, MWB, Nielsen Homescan)

Creative Execution

We worked with Channel Nine to create a series of integrated content pieces to get consumers thinking about cricketing athleticism. Audience data identified 3 Channel Nine programmes that indexed highly against our audience: Today Show, Cricket Show and Wide World of Sport. Each programme had a bespoke piece of content created for it that proved cricket athleticism in a way that was relevant to that programme. Today show created a segment about the pre-test build up, Cricket Show created content pieces on the evolution of cricketing athleticism and the Wide World of Sport facilitated a commentator panel discussion around the impact that training has on match day results. The result was different but very interlinked content proof points. We also created an in match ‘drinks break’ where Gatorade was actually given to players in real time. Shots of cricketing athletes drinking the product were then amplified across Nines broadcast.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

Gatorade has been a partner with Cricket Australia for 8 years. In recent years the sponsorship had stalled. Stagnant brand metrics and declining purchase intent meant that we had to find a new way to reinvigorate this partnership. We needed a unique point of view about cricket. Via our qualitative research we discovered a powerful insight. Australians didn't see cricket players as real athletes. For Gatorade, where athletic credibility has a proven link to purchase intent, this presented a real disconnect. Moreover this simply wasn't true. In today’s highly competitive game, cricket players have to train and work just as hard as any athlete or sporting professional. This created a massive opportunity. By proving to consumers that cricket players were in fact athletes and their ability was enhanced by Gatorade, we could really amplify our cricket association. Our strategy was simple: use content to prove that Cricket Players are athletes