Summer 2021 saw PepsiCo’s Gatorade sports drink launch a mobile video series aimed at engaging student athletes (a key target demographic throughout the sports drink brand’s history) in collaboration with the school sports training video platform Hudl.
Gatorade integrates its own branding into Hudl – which was developed as a video platform for coaches and athletes to record and share highlight reels – through an original ‘Skills & Drills’ content series based around training tips from sports stars and brand endorsers.
The aim of the app-based series is to engage its primary target group and help position the sports drink brand as being both supportive and authentic and ‘Skills & Drills’ is hosted on Hudl’s iOS and Android apps.
Each video in the series’ 24 episodes features advice from a professional athlete, coach or doctor on how to improve athletic performance: such as the Boston Celtics’ Jayson Tatum offering tips on cardio training, a demonstration of speed training from Philadelphia Eagles Director of Performance Ted Rath and sessions on agility training from New York Mets Strength and Conditioning Coach Dustin Clarke and Houston Rockets Director of Performance Javair Gillett.
Click on the link below to watch the sample Taytum video on Hudl.
https://www.hudl.com/video/6075a7026e8b3e0eec31ee3c
“A lot of the things Gatorade talks about are the same thing that Hudl talks about, in terms of helping athletes reach the next level and being part of their whole journey,” said Hudl Chief Operator Officer Matt Mueller. “We’re looking for brand partners that help improve the athlete’s experience in getting ready. In the off-season right now when many football players aren’t playing, it’s a great way for us to connect, to share, and bringing someone like Gatorade to the platform is a great experience. The athletes are excited about it, and for the professional athletes, it’s something that can help engage a greater brand affinity with a brand like Gatorade.”
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The “Skills & Drills” videos have collectively generated millions of views: giving the brand good exposure among Hudl users.
Unlike most traditional ads and commercials and their direct, overt sales messages, this Gatorade-sponsored series seeks to offer an engaging and informational benefit for the young athlete younger audience. By emphasising professional advice and expertise on athletic training, the campaign helps position Gatorade as supportive, authentic and educational.
Hudl began as a shareable tool for coaches to create video reels of games and use them to train student athletes. During the 2021 sports season, Hudl’s own data shows that US student athletes spend more time on Hudl than they do on most mainstream social media apps like Instagram or Twitter.
This, for brands like Gatorade seeking to reach young athletes (the demographic most likely to consume sports drinks), Hudl offers a specific audience targeting solution.
Hudl is free to athletes at schools which themselves pay a subscription fee to provide its various services to their teams. Todate, more than 5m use the platform spread among 170,000 teams at 30,000 schools. The platform boasts a 99% penetration rate among high school football teams.
‘Skills & Drills’ is consistent with previous Gatorade marketing efforts to reach younger consumers and student athletes.
This experimental Hudl partner initiative follows on from Gatorade’s 2020 global ‘GOAT’ campaign featuring some of the world’s greatest athletes like Michael Jordan, Serena Williams, Lionel Messi and Usain Bolt which was set in Gatorade’s fictional ‘GOAT Camp’ – a mythical setting where students could train with elite athletes.
This latest initiative is part of Gatorade’s umbrella strategy of driving sales growth, despite losing share in the increasingly competitive and increasingly crowded sports drink category.
“Gatorade is not growing share in the sports drink category, but it’s been one of the top three brands contributing to overall growth of LRB [liquid refreshment beverage] in 2020 and continues in 2021,” explained PepsiCo CEO Ramon Laguarta. “The growth of Gatorade has been very strong.”
Laguarta pointed to Gatorade Zero, a sugar-free version of the drink for consumers looking to cut back on carbs, as a growth driver for the brand.
Gatorade currently has around 68% of the sports drink market in the US, followed by Coca-Cola’s Powerade at 14% and BodyArmor at 9.3% (according to industry publisher Beverage Daily).
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