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For fuck's sake, take some pride in what you do.
As in Crap!
For those who don't know, G is the new label design.
It may be getting people to talk but the real issue is whether or not it will get people to buy which I doubt it will.
Reality is Gatorade is sugar and salt water and very few people are buying it anymore as compared to a few years ago. They still have a commanding lead in the sports beverage industry. 70-75% but not the 87% they had just a few years ago.
Vitaminwater is licking it's ass and has single handedly destroyed the Propel brand.
Massimo D'Amore the douchebag who pulled the biz from E79 thinks that Gatorade can be bigger than sports. Of course this is thesame genius who paid $10 million dollars to produce that piece of shit Sobe "Thrillicious" spot last year. He is an overpaid Italian moron who thinks he knows American culture better than Americans.
As for Chiat/Day, shame on you. Double shame on the creatives who let this shit go out. It's obvious the glory days of Chiat/Day are really. Enjoy tossing the salad of Pepsi. It worked out real well for E79.
So what's a G? Gag.
When you are a leader in a certain sector and a competitor is coming after you, what do you do? You're supposed to just continue being who you were before the No. 2 was breathing down your neck. You are not supposed to try to steal market share from your competitor by trying to become them.
Well, the folks at Gatorade—a brand that I love more than any brand in this world—have buckled. And I fear that in the face of pressure they've made a grave mistake.
Here's the new Gatorade bottle for 2009, with the Big G.
I don't mind it. It's something different. What I do mind are the changes in the names:
Gatorade Fierce now equals Bring It
Gatorade X-Factor now equals Be Tough
Gatorade AM is Shine On
Gatorade Rain is No Excuses
That's not it. For the first time ever, they're putting vitamins in the flavors.
I'm staring at a document from the Gatorade Sports Institute in 2004 that says "vitamins provide no energy and vitamin supplements will not enhance athletic performance of individuals already consuming a balanced diet." Gatorade isn't saying it adds energy, but the brand is still putting it in their drink.
Here's what I surmise happened. Market research must have shown that the young kids didn't think that Gatorade was cool anymore and athletes and parents thought that it was nice that their competitor, Coca-Cola's [KO 44.93 0.22 (+0.49%) ]Vitaminwater, had the added value of vitamins. So what did the people at PepsiCo [PEP 53.89 -1.81 (-3.25%) ] do? They tried to become Vitaminwater.
Vitaminwater's flavors include defense, focus, balance, essential, energy, relaxed, among others. Now the only difference between Gatorade and Vitaminwater is the amount of sodium, which Gatorade has stood by for years. Is that next?
I am stunned by such a radical departure from a winning formula that has been scientifically tested and proven on the field of play for over 30 years. Shame on you PepsiCo for allowing this to happen to such an iconic brand. Your shareholders will not be happy and other niche players will seize the opportunity to gain market share and develop innovative products with real benefits to athletes instead of relying on new logos, slick packaging, and other gimmicks from Marketing 101.
Anyone who has ever worked on Gatorade knows that while they may be attempting to go "urban" their true goal is to hook aspirational teen suburbanites while you may doubt this I know it for a fact. In the past, Gatorade/Pepsi hasn't allowed any artist who has used profanity or questionable lyrics in their songs to appear in a Gatorade commercial. Hence the only artist who has ever been used by Gatorade previously was LL Cool J. He's "urban" but not offensive to the suburban moms. (we all know he has had both profanity and questionable content but apparently his Q scores with suburban teens were big enough to overlook that) I don't know Lil Wayne's material enough to say he is edgy enough to buck this trend, but since he had so many #1 songs this year, I doubt it. But I could be wrong.
This campaign will not move the needle in the long run. Kids will see through the BS. In typical Pepsi fashion, they will probably abandon it before Labor day. They have the dedication and attention span of a ADD/HD kid on crack.
Isn't Element 79 dead yet?
http://www.kanyeuniversecity.com/blog/?em3106=2...
- Katie Bayne, CMO Coca-Cola
Clearly, the marketers at PepsiCo who are now making decisions on the behalf of this brand have lost touch with Gatorade's core consumers with the new campaign and decision to move the account to Chiat/Day (creative campaign) and Arnell (packaging, logo). Massimo D'Amore and Indra Nooyi's tactics will fail to move the needle and another agency will be given the task of resurrecting the brand after market share continues to fall.
A smart agency would have employed other tactics inviting consumers to discover "what G is" and teased the campaign out. The viral success of Element79's "Ball Girl" campaign was clearly the impetus behind the current program. I see what they are driving towards, but the execution is shit and sales will continue to fall short of analysts expectations.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7ixi6Z1KDM