Gatorade: #Belikemike, 4

Credits & Description:

Category: Beverage
Media: TV, Online
Agency: VML
Client: Gatorade
Brand: Gatorade
Company: VML, Kansas City
Target: USA · North America
Features: Pages, Boosted Posts, Desktop News Feed, Mobile News Feed, Video Ads
Language: English (US)
Objectives: Awareness, Preference
Tags: Beverage, North America, English (US), Pages, Boosted Posts, Desktop News Feed, Mobile News Feed, Video Ads, Awareness, Preference, TV, Online  
Campaign Description
When Gatorade launched what would become its most iconic campaign in 1991, “Be Like Mike. Drink Gatorade.” was just a tagline – a tagline that tied the brand to basketball superstar Michael Jordan. As the brand’s first endorsement, the combination ended up creating a cultural movement where – even years later – people still sing the song and athletes of today are compared to Jordan. Never had Gatorade’s advertising influenced the masses like this campaign.
And for its 50th Anniversary last year, Gatorade wanted to recapture the success of its most influential campaign. Only problem was, today’s audience of teen athletes weren’t even born when the campaign’s star, and arguably best basketball player of all time, Michael Jordan, dominated the NBA. They’d never seen him play – let alone wanted to be like him.
So our idea was simple: remake history with a new generation of athletes. First we introduced teens to Jordan at a live event during NBA All-Star Weekend, where they reenacted his biggest career moments – wearing his shoes and jersey and shooting in the face of live defenders. That weekend, we posted a video of the event along with a coordinated social campaign featuring archival imagery of Jordan, including a re-mastered version of the original commercial. The combination inspired more than 51,000 teens and professional athletes, like Usain Bolt and Serena Williams, to show us how they #BeLikeMike. Over the next six weeks, we were in constant conversation with our audience, using their #BeLikeMike content in our posts along with historical imagery of Jordan. We then used the best submissions to recreate the original ad – classic song and all – and proved that decades later, we all still “wanna be like Mike.”
Campaign Goals
Simply re-airing the original TV spot wasn’t an option if Gatorade’s aim was to influence another generation like it had in 1991. Mainly because teens are spending upwards of nine hours a day consuming media – not watching TV. So we adapted Be Like Mike to their habits and created, at its core, a social campaign that was driven by:
1. Historical imagery of Jordan.
2. Influencer posts from professional athletes such as Cam Newton and Mia Hamm.
3. User-generated content.
Given the nature of Facebook’s and Instagram’s platforms, both were key drivers of awareness and engagement with our photo and video imagery. The magnitude of Facebook’s reach helped us to connect with more than just today’s competitive teen athletes but also historical Jordan fans. As for Instagram, Gatorade ran its first paid initiative on the platform, allowing us to inspire our audience in a channel where they connect with their friends and passions.
Campaign Performance
Ultimately, we not only recaptured the original spot’s success but also
contributed to what is now Gatorade’s most viewed campaign in its history, with more than 38 million views for all videos across platforms.