Gatorade has a plan to keep you drinking for another 60 years

[ResidentialBusiness]

As the Super Bowl clock ticked just below three minutes left in the game, Eagles wide receivers A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith picked up the giant Gatorade cooler, snuck behind head coach Nick Sirianni on the sideline, and hit him with the traditional shower celebration. 

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It was probably one of the best ads of the Super Bowl, and it wasn’t even a commercial. And yet, it still told a story about how close the ties are between this brand and one of the most significant moments in sports. 

This year, Gatorade celebrates its 60th anniversary since Dr. James Cade first concocted his formula to keep the Florida Gators football team hydrated. Gatorade chief brand officer Anuj Bhasin says the brand is going to mark the occasion throughout the year with a strategy that aims to set things up for the next six decades. 

It’s a balance of honoring the past, while still pushing an image of innovation. The brand still holds more than 60% market share in sports drinks, but is also competing with brands like Liquid Death, all the energy drinks, water brands, and whatever else is available in the corner store fridge.

The brand has been experimenting with various ways to move beyond just a sports drink to become an overall sports fuel brand for the past decade. That goal continues in earnest into its 60th year. 

“We have to think differently about how we use leading edge science to solve athlete problems,” says Bhasin. “We’re going to be thinking much more expansively about what what athletes might need and what they’re going to be having access to over the next 60 (years).”

Linebacker Harry Carson of the New York Giants splashes a bucket of Gatorade over Head coach Bill Parcells after defeating the Denver Broncos during Super Bowl XXI on January 25, 1987, at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. [Photo: Focus on Sport/Getty Images]

Building on tradition

There’s no doubt that Gatorade sponsorship investments keep the sports drink on the big league sidelines. In 2022, brand parent company PepsiCo renewed its deal with the NFL for another eight years, and actually codeveloped a new caffeine-infused sports drink called Fast Twitch with the league. No financial details were released, but the previous deal was reportedly $2 billion over 10 years.

But the post-win shower was not a brand invention. It started 40 years ago during the 1984 NFL season, though there is a dispute about who started it—the New York Giants or the Chicago Bears. 

Last year, the brand launched an updated take on its classic “It Is In You?” campaign, starting with a spot narrated by Michael Jordan. It also brought back the brand’s classic aesthetic of black and white images, highlighted with colorful Gatorade-flavored sweat, now featuring Caitlin Clark, A’ja Wilson, Jayson Tatum, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, and Josh Allen all perspiring the brand colors.

[Photos: Gatorade]

That campaign helped boost the brand in a couple areas, according to a digital brand lift study with DISQO. First, Gatorade saw an 18% growth in the number of people who think Gatorade “improves athletic performance, and 12.6% lift in people who think it is “scientifically proven to rehydrate faster than water” (Even if that’s a very debatable point).

Bhasin says the brand also made a pivot in its approach to its social marketing, shifting from moments the brand created—campaigns, ad launches—to reacting and capitalizing on moments in sports culture. This week, when Luka Doncic was set to make his debut as a Los Angeles Laker, Gatorade posted a video of the Hollywood sign flipping its “L”s to resemble the NBA star’s number 77 jersey. It attracted more than two million views on X alone. 

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The brand is also pushing harder on a shift its made over the past year that is less centered on the brand, but led by its athletes, influencers, and scientific experts. “Consumers don’t have to listen to us. They can skip our commercials. They can skip our digital creative,” says Bhasin. “They will opt into it if the content is highly relevant, so developing content that is founded in sport culture and sport science is the biggest shift that we’re making.”

Over the next few months, the newest batch of brand content will start rolling out. 

“Last year was hyper focused on resharpening who we were and what we stood for with athletes,” says Bhasin. “This year is about deepening that trust emotionally with them, while also showcasing a road map to the future.”

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