Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBlJzuSQEa4
Over the past 50 years Gatorade has been the athlete’s drink of choice. It helps the human body recover faster and fill your body with electrolyte’s to help take on whatever’s next. During the past 10 years Gatorade has noticed more and more people drinking Gatorade who aren’t physically active. Well, if you’re not physically active while drinking Gatorade it doesn’t make much sense to be a regular consumer. The previous statement is the real consumer problem. As of 2016, many people are using Gatorade to cure headaches, hangovers, and to even study for exams. Even though sales haven’t witnessed any decreasing trends, Gatorade corporation would like to see their recovery drink consumed in a properly fashion.
The particular audience Gatorade was looking to target consisted of the population of people who don’t sweat but still drink Gatorade. With the hashtag #keepsweating, Gatorade placed what they called sweat machines all over Canada and in this article specifically, Toronto. They were placed around inner city parks, professional sports games, and even the metropolitan areas. These so called sweat machines had the ability to sense the palm of an individual’s hand to see if they were actually sweating. If so, the individual would receive a free Gatorade. If not, the machine would offer suggestions as to how that individual could break a quick sweat. For example, the person could do lunges, push-ups, crunches, etc. Personally, I think the suggestions of the sweat machine ad value simply because it shows how much Gatorade as a company cares. Most companies care about sales, in this campaign Gatorade showed their passion for proper consumption.
Overall, this was a great form of earned media due to numerous reasons. First, they had a great hashtag #KeepSweating that caused a great Twitter reaction. Secondly, the machines were interactive with the public forcing them to listen and gain motivation from their experience. In regards to earned media, these machines were all over Canada and couldn’t be missed. When’s the last time you saw a Gatorade vending machine? Exactly. The sweat machine would actually yell at joggers, walkers, pedestrians as they passed by attempting to gain their attention or in other words, to earn their media. We also notice people in the video taking photos and videos which served as a success when it comes to earned media.
This campaign had other commercials, featuring Peyton Manning, JJ Watt, and other guest actors. So you keep in mind the next time you see a Gatorade that you better be sweating or else it’s pretty much pointless.
-Jack Davis
oepediadotcom 