Powerade - Inner Gear

Background
Powerade wanted to build on their iconic ‘naked’ Olympic campaign with a Rugby concept. Steve Borthwick, Shane Williams and Paul Sackey were chosen represent strength, speed and skill throughout the company’s branded campaign.

 

In addition, Powerade entered into official supplier agreements with a number of clubs and bodies. To get this message to a broad audience Powerade identified the clear need to work with a media owner to publicise and contextualise their involvement with rugby and, importantly, the ways in which Powerade helps to fuel an athlete’s Inner Gear. 
 
The Big Idea
Pure Power, Pure Speed and Pure Agility - we developed a campaign highlighting the virtues of speed, strength and agility in the context of the 6 Nations and Lions coverage. As the main physical attributes that drive a rugby player’s Inner Gear we determined that Powerade activity should be placed in an environment whereby the link between real life performance and hydration can be amplified.

 

Powerade provided access to their ambassadors for exclusive editorial content, all co-branded activity was designed using Powerade imagery and bespoke content was developed that focused upon the three physical attributes at the centre of the overall marketing campaign.


 
Making It Happen
A series of three exclusive interviews launched the campaign in The Times with the content being built into full page advertorials to enable us to highlight the benefits of Powerade to each ambassador’s key attribute. In addition a series of video interviews with the ambassadors & Sunday Times contributor Lawrence Dallaglio were hosted on Timesonline. 

 

Strong editorial buy in throughout the 6 Nations led to a regular column highlighting the best plays of each match weekend as well as ensuring that Powerade advertising appeared alongside specific rugby coverage.

 

An online application was built that highlighted The Times’ senior rugby journalists greatest 6 Nations players of all time in each of the three physical categories. This has been re-written for the Lions Tour and is being supported by an online application enabling Times readers to compare their own Inner Gear with each of the Powerade ambassadors. 
 

Results

  • Pure Recall: The striking imagery that we used throughout the campaign ensured that recall of Powerade advertising was 100% higher for those exposed to the campaign. Further, against an industry average of 22%, four in ten Times readers recalled the co-branded elements of the campaign.
  • Pure Impact: the campaign influenced Times readers to have significantly stronger affinity with the brand with a 50% increase in a range of metrics, including the drink’s suitability for athletes, and seven in ten readers feeling that the link between Powerade and rugby was appropriate.
  • Pure Intent: importantly, while only 12% of Times readers felt that they would be likely to buy Powerade in the future this increased to 22% of those exposed to the campaign.