Rjunge's Blog

In this blog post I’m going to add three more advertising campaigns that I believe are some of the best of the year. Statistically speaking they haven’t reached the same success as the previous campaigns that I talked about in my last post, but I still believe that they were fun and creative ideas that I still enjoy watching.

1) Gatorade- Revolution

I think that this campaign is one of the most clever in recent years by anybody, but also specifically by Gatorade.  They completely reinvented their brand by doing something that is very important; they focused their attention and targeted their market more specifically. They know that the people who buy Gatorade are more generally athletes who are looking to perform at whatever sport/activity that they’re participating in.  This video above was the beginning of a campaign in which they were introducing their new product line; a three piece set that reinvented the image of Gatorade.  Gatorade 1, also known as “Prime”, Gatorade 2, also known as “Perform”, and Gatorade 3, also known as “Recover”.  This is the advertisement for those three drinks.

When Gatorade was testing their new products, they handed them out to athletes to try out in real life activities.  After all, that would be the best testing scenario right?  The three athletes they chose were (in order) Usain Bolt, Dwight Howard, and Peyton Manning.  Cameras were sent to all three during certain times to document that happenings.  Bolt used the Prime before training for a race and was quoted as saying that it was a big help for him.  Dwight Howard used the originally Gatorade, now called Perform, during their basketball playoff last year.  This wasn’t a change of course because the formula for the original Gatorade hasn’t changed.  Finally Peyton Manning and the Colts were given the Recover formula to drink during the Superbowl game against the Saints.  The Colts, of course, lost that game, however that was not the focus of the cameras.  The video footage was good and the athletes all reported feeling better after using the sports beverages, and the change was made.

2) Nike- Write the Future

This campaign was created for the World Cup this year and I think it was brilliant.  It’s a brilliant advertisement not only for the rest of the world, showcasing the sports greats, but especially for America, where excitement and hype is hard to come by when you’re talking about Soccer.  In America, a lot of our sports are based on star power.  When you go to see a team play, you go to see certain players.  Not in every sport is it necessary, but in every sport it helps to bring people out.  In baseball more people will come to the games when the Yankee’s come to town.  In Basketball there are so many stars that there is more than one team that will bring out extra crowds to see them play; be it the LA Lakers and Kobe Bryant, the Miami Heat and Lebron James and company, or the Denver Nuggets with Carmelo Anthony.  In America, our biggest soccer star is Landon Donovan, and unless you’re on the west coast or your team hosts a MLS team, you’re not going to be able to see him.  This commercial showcased to the American people the stars of the game and got them interested in the sport.  It showed the average American who you should be watching, and could expect great things from.  If Donovan had been included in the commercial it may have experienced more commercial success in the States, but it was still in my opinion one of the best for the World Cup that i’ve seen.

3) Lowe’s- First Time Home Buyers

To be honest, this commercial hasn’t had much commercial success, I just enjoy it and wanted to post it on here for anyone who hasn’t seen it.  Lowe’s does a good job with this series showing their position in the market that they want to hold as being the friendly and helpful home improvement store.  It’s a simple straightforward message that they injected with a little bit of humor, and I think that it is pretty clever.