Coinciding with the start of the US Open, Gatorade has launched an integrated campaign celebrating Serena Williams’ 21 grand slams that spans TV, outdoor art and digital.
Leveraging her attempt to win an all-time record-tying 22nd major win at the 2015 tournament in Queens (New York), the campaign celebrates her career to date: charting her journey from the public courts of Compton (California), her key battles and challenges, to the victories and establishing herself as the greatest player of her generation.
Perhaps the greatest of any generation.
Led by a commercial called ‘Unmatched’ featuring archive Williams’ footage the initiative highlights her journey: from her dreams as a little girl to her growth as a player and a star and highlights of her key victories.
One of the most remarkable snippets from the spot sees a reporter asks her ‘If you were a tennis player, who would you want to be like?’ to which Williams’ replies ‘I’d like other people to be like me’.
Parallel to the advertising, 21 pieces of art have been commissioned by Gatorade – each celebrating Williams’ historical tennis moments and major triumphs.
Each artwork was painted by the artist on an outdoor wall on the corner of Kent Ave and Grand Street in Williamsburg (Brooklyn, NYC) and together they tell the star’s grand slam story.
The outdoor mural initiative, naturally, with a ‘Making Of’ video.
The pieces are also used as the core creative for the sports drink’s digital tribute – at http://www.gatorade.com/21/ – which explores all of William’s Grand Slam victories through a blend of Gatorade’s familiar cartoon creative allied with text-based match reviews of each tournament win.
There are also social strands to the campaign – including a Twitter-based run down off each of her wins blending graffiti creative across outdoor and transport locations in New York
They say the best are beatable. Only the greatest overcome it. @serenawilliams #WinFromWithin pic.twitter.com/7erw4AoAgg
— Gatorade (@Gatorade) August 30, 2015
Every game, same game plan: rewrite history. @serenawilliams #WinFromWithin pic.twitter.com/wbI5fqzRwf
— Gatorade (@Gatorade) August 30, 2015
It takes courage to come back. It takes sweat to come back on top. @serenawilliams #WinFromWithin pic.twitter.com/MNcQ4jEfMz
— Gatorade (@Gatorade) August 28, 2015
The campaign, which runs with the brand’s ongoing ‘Win From Within’ strapline, was developed in harness with agency TBWA\Chiat\Day LA and the paintings were created by artists from Overall Murals and designed by New York creative agency Vault49.
Comment
This campaign not only follows Williams’ appearance in Gatorade’s ‘Sweat With The Best’ advertising and experiential initiative back in May (see case study),
but also the sports drink giant’s impressively fast, real-time response work to Williams’ Wimbledon win earlier in the summer.
To leverage her All England Club victory on 11 July, just 73 minutes after she had won the tournament Gatorade posted a short ‘Serena Slam’ film that generated more than a 1000 retweets in 24 hours.
Reign on, @SerenaWilliams. #WinFromWithin #SerenaSlam pic.twitter.com/KYIX41nIZJ
— Gatorade (@Gatorade) July 11, 2015
This campaign continues Gatorade’s ongoing exploration of its endorser athletes’ journeys – previous iterations of which include its recent campaign about the life of NBA star Jabari Parker.
Gatorade currently has a portfolio of 32 ambassador athletes for marketing purposes spanning a variety of sports and markets: Jamaican sprint star Usain Bolt, basketball icon Michael Jordan, to soccer sensation Abby Wambach and Serena Williams.
Serena Williams herself is reported to have an annual income of $13m in endorsement partnerships
In addition to her Gatorade deal, Serena William’s sponsorship portfolio stretches from sports apparel partner Nike (a five-year $40m deal penned in 2013) and racket partner Wilson to nail lacquer manufacturer OPI.
She is also one of the famous faces in the new ‘hold my Pepsi’ #PepsiChallenge campaign that rolled out earlier in 2015..
Links
Gatorade YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/user/whatsg
Gatorade Website:
Gatorade Twitter:
Gatorade Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/Gatorade
Serena Williams:
http://serenawilliams.com/sponsors/
TBWA\Chiat\Day LA
Vault 49:
Overall Murals:
