Underestimate Serena Williams at your own peril.
That’s the proposition at the heart of a new Gatorade campaign leveraging her return to Wimbledon after becoming a mother.
To celebrate Serena Williams’ return to the elite and her progress to the 2018 Wimbledon final, a new Gatorade campaign pays tribute to the tennis super star and to mothers all around the world.
The campaign explores the theme that dedication, sacrifice and strength offer a powerful foundation.
The overall message though is that Williams is in a league of her own.
The hero commercial is narrated by Williams’ mother Oracene Price and was amplified across the drink’s brand’s channels from YouTube,
and, linked by the #LikeAMother hashtag, also appeared across other platforms such as Twitter
She didn't return to greatness despite becoming a mother, she's great because she plays #LikeAMother @serenawilliams pic.twitter.com/oud0vVD4Ik
— Gatorade (@Gatorade) July 13, 2018
and Facebook.
The campaign was developed for Gatorade by creative agency TBWA\Chiat\Day where the team was led by chief creative officer Renato Fernandez and global creative directors Doug Menezes and Mark Peters, senior copywriter Liz Cartwright, senior art director Stephen Lum, director of production Brian O’Rourke, plus executive producer Guia Iacomin and associate producer Jeff Holiday.
The managing director was Jerico Dig Cabaysa, the brand director was Robyn Morris, the management supervisor Gabriela Marino and the account group assistant was Wenona Carlos. Planning was supervised by Scott MacMaster and Martin Ramos
The media agency was OMD, the editorial house was Cut + Run, VFX and colour was handled by Framestore, mix by Lime and music by Human.
Comment:
Williams, one of the world’s greatest athletes, made a serious charge at Wimbledon 2018 and in the final fell just short of securing a record 24th Grand Slam tennis championship after losing to Germany’s Angelique Kerber in the final.
So much congratulatory creative can somewhat forced and sometimes cynically pre-prepared.
But the strength of this spot is that the theme and message is clearly authentically relevant to the athlete’s own views and character.
After a challenging delivery which included emergency surgery, both motherhood and the issue of mother’s returning to work are important elements of William’s perspective.
Indeed, in her post-match, on-court interview after losing the final in straight sets, she said: “I was playing for [all the moms] today.”
While in the press conference that followed she encouraged all mothers to keep pursuing their careers saying: “I had such a long struggle to come back and it was really difficult, and honestly I feel like if I can do it, they can do it. I’m just that person, that vessel that’s saying you can be whatever you want to be if you want to go back to work.”
The next Grand Slam target, the US Open, will see her continue to meet the challenge in late August.
Links:
Gatorade
https://www.youtube.com/gatorade
https://www.facebook.com/Gatorade/
https://www.instagram.com/gatorade/
TBWA\Chiat\Day
