Plan For Gatorade H2
Amber Hudson
IMC Campaign Planning
April 30, 2017
Executive Summary
• Gatorade growth volumes have decreased due to fierce competition from bottle water, energy drinks, and
coffee and have faced criticism due to high calorie and sugar content
• Gatorade to position Gatorade H2 as a top of mind 100% natural hydration beverage among athletes and
non-athletic consumers
• Target trendsetting health conscious millennials
• 18 week campaign
• Television, Digital Media, Event Sponsorships, PR
• Budget: 40 million dollars
Background and Market Dynamics
Gatorade is the market leader in the sports drink market with a 69.5% share, well over their closest
competitor Powerade who has a 28.8% share of the market.
Although Gatorade is a market leader in the sports drink category, competition from bottle waters,
energy drinks, and coffee have caused growth volumes to slow down and slip from 5th to 6th
position in the liquid refreshment beverage(LRB)market.
Gatorade has also faced criticism for their perceived negative impact on the young consumers due
to high calories and sugar content
Sports nutrition marketers are discovering flavors outside of classic sports nutrition flavors that
represents the market trend toward more “natural” botanical flavors will help the sports drink
category appeal mainstream
Target Audience
The Health Conscious Trendsetting Millennial
Age: 18-35
Gender: Male or Female
Needs: Functional based needs. Beverages with natural and organic ingredients
that also have health benefits and doesn’t compromise on taste. Needs healthy
beverage options for hydration and heat exhaustion.
Behaviors: Works hard and plays hard. Active social media user
Powers: Trendsetter and has the ability to influence friends and family’s
purchasing decisions.
Interests: Social and active lifestyle. Travel, concerts, sports, and food.
Media Consumption Habits: Television, Radio, streaming services such as Netflix,
and digital media including social media and YouTube. Consumes most media
through a digital device such as a smartphone or tablet.
Consumer Insights
• Millennial consumers wants healthier refreshment, variety and convenience in their beverages.
• Millennial consumers want clean labels that contains recognizable ingredients.
• Millennial consumers want drinks with functional benefits such as; energy, renewal, weight loss,
etc….
• Millennial consumers feel a sense of pride and accomplishment when consuming healthy
products
• Consumers who are health conscious will pay more for natural, organic foods that benefit their
health
Problem to Solve or Opportunity
Gatorade is facing fierce competition from category's such as bottle waters, energy drinks, and
coffee causing growth volumes to slow down. There is an opportunity due to a market trend
towards more natural and botanical flavors to reach a broader audience by creating awareness with
non-athletic consumers of Gatorade H2 an all-natural hydration beverage that includes organic
ingredients. Sport drinks have historically targeted athletes, but by branding Gatorade H2 as a
hydration beverage Gatorade has an opportunity to expand market share by targeting the nonathletic consumer.
Goals and Objectives
Goal: To position Gatorade H2 as a top of mind 100% natural hydration beverage among athletes and nonathletic consumers
Objective 1: Increase top of mind awareness by 25% within 9 months of campaign launch
Objective 2: Increase sales market share in LRB market by 20% and increase rank from 6th to 4th
Campaign Strategy Overview
Smart Hydration
Gatorade H2 will use a strategic channel/media mix of paid, owned and earned media. The media
outlets will consist of digital media, television, event sponsorship, and public relation tools to create
brand awareness and increase sales and send the message to trendsetting millennials that Gatorade H2
is an all-natural, hydration beverage made with organic ingredients and the smart choice for hydration.
This campaign will run for 18 weeks beginning May through Labor day when sales of hydration
beverages peak due to warm weather. The campaign will be titled “Smart Hydration” to position
Gatorade H2 as a hydration beverage versus a sports beverage and emphasizing the added body
replenishing benefits made with organic ingredients.
Value Proposition: For health conscious millennials, Gatorade H2 is the only hydration beverage with
body restoring nutrients made with all natural ingredients that will keep you healthy and your body
performing at it’s highest level.
Digital Strategy
Website: The microsite smarthydration.com will be created so that Gatorade’s current customer base
is not alienated. This microsite will have the slight variations to layout, color scheme, and design of
Gatorade’s website but will be used to communicate Gatorade H2 campaign message of smart
hydration for the non-athlete who prefers healthy and natural options. There will also be company
and product info, purchase options, and promotional offers available on the site. Will use ad/key
words such as healthy, drink, water, all natural, organic, hydrate to drive traffic to the microsite.
SEO: As a part of the digital strategy Gatorade H2 will use Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to
research terms and keywords to ensure the content on the microsite, YouTube, and social media
platforms will lead to top placement on search engines.
Social Media: Gatorade H2 will utilize Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube as social media
outlets to reach consumers. Gatorade H2 will have separate social media accounts from the Gatorade
brand. The hashtag #smarthydration will be communicated on all using content marketing since
brand awareness is one of the main objectives of the campaign. The target consumer will be
encouraged to use the hashtag on Twitter, Instagram etc. through contesting and endorsements from
celebrities known for healthy lifestyles such as Jessica Alba and Russel Simmons. Social media
influencers who fit the target will be sought out as brand ambassadors to promote smart hydration
and Gatorade H2 through their social media accounts.
Television Strategy
“You Don’t Have To Be An Athlete To Hydrate”
Gatorade H2 will use broadcast and cable television to reach the trendsetting millennial. :60 and
:30 commercials will run on top networks and channels for millennials such as ESPN, ABC, Adult
Swim, TBS, and AMC around key television shows and during primetime. These commercials will
communicate the message of smart hydration highlighting the all natural and organic ingredients
with body replenishing benefits. There will also be sponsorship advertising through Netflix. Nonathletic celebrity endorsers who are known for healthy lifestyles and resonate with the target
audience such as Jessica Alba and Russel Simmons will communicate the campaign slogan: “You
don’t have to be an athlete to hydrate.
Event Sponsorships
Gatorade H2 will sponsor concerts and music festivals that are key for the health conscious
millennials such as Coachella and Lollapalooza to create awareness and spread the “smart
hydration” message. At these concert and festivals brand ambassadors will distribute sample
bottles of Gatorade H2 and drive attendees to Gatorade H2’s hydration station where they can get
more bottles, branded t-shirts, drawstring bags, promotional instructions on how to get a free case
by signing up though the website.
Public Relations Strategy
Gain Media Placement: Gain placement in key media outlets targeting trendsetting millennials
utilizing press releases. The campaign will launch with an alert to the media with an official
statement will regarding the new product release of Gatorade H2. This statement will inform the
media of Gatorade’s history, recent success and mainly the launch of Gatorade H2.
Social Media: Since the target for this campaign is millennials who spends a majority of their time
consuming social media it is advantageous to use Facebook, Instagram and Twitter as vehicles to
generate content around Gatorade H2. The social media contest will encourage consumers to
hydrate with Gatorade H2 and post and share pictures with family and friends on Instagram and
Facebook using the hashtag #smarthydration in order to win a trip to New York City to meet and
drink with the celebrity endorser.
Celebrity Endorsements:
Brand Positioning: To trendsetting millennials who are health
conscious and looking for healthy beverage options, Gatorade
H2 is the hydration beverage that allows you to make the smart
choice and stay healthy while hydrating. That's because
Gatorade H2 replenishes the body and is all natural with
organic ingredients.
Creative
You don’t have to be an athlete to hydrate. Everybody
enquires a drink preferably one that’s healthy flavorful and
with organic ingredients. Stay Hydrated with Gatorade H2
Creative Look/Feel: Creative look will use non athletic celebrity
endorsers or images relatable to the target(average millennial
person), and use the campaign slogan “Smart Hydration”. The
tone is optimistic and should evoke feelings of confidence
encouraging health conscious millennials to continue to
nourish their body with health beneficial products.
Message: Message will speak to directly to the non athletic
consumer of functional benefits of hydration, body
replenishment, with all natural ingredients.
Promotional Offer: Consumers will receive promotional offers
for a free bottle of Gatorade H2 at consumer events or by
driving traffic to smarthydration.com to enroll in the hydration
club to receive free product, discounts, and exclusive
opportunities.
Creative
Instagram Social Media Post
Campaign and Media Calendar
Month 1
1
15
Month 2
30
8
28
Creative Development
Creative Brief Concept Producti
Launch
Review 1 on
Sales Training
Media Planning &
Buying
Development training
Media Brief Media
Purchase
Plan
Media
Sales Rep training
Finalize
Insertion
Orders
Press Releases
TV
Write Press Releases
Media Alert
Web/mobile
Content/Site Development
Month 3
9
19
Month 4
29
10
Commercials
Facebook
Twitter
Commercials
Launch Microsite
Boosted Post
Boosted Post
Celebrit Celebrity
Live Daily
y
Endorser Tweets Tweets
Endorse
r
Tweets
Distribute product at key consumer
events,
Social Media Contest
Live Daily Tweets/Social
Influencer tweets
A/B Test Creative
Develop
Reporting
Report 2
Reading
Consumer Events
Marketing Effectiveness Focus Group
21
Report 1
Reading
30
Test Agenda
Hypothesis: Millennials are more likely to respond to creative featuring celebrity endorsers than
creative that does not.
Objective: Determine if millennials are more likely to respond to smart hydration message featuring
celebrity than unknown person
A/B Creative Test Design: Use same creative and key message and change actor from celebrity
endorser to unknown actor. Test on millennial audience via email, YouTube and Facebook. Run test
for 4 weeks or until significant responses are received. Determine winner.
Assets Needed: Creative Mockups, messages, and outside vendor
Budget
Budget to be used for campaign testing, production, and media buying.
Overall Budget: $40 million
Suggested Breakout
Production: $10 million
Media: $30 million
Television: $20 million
Digital: $8 million
Event Sponsorship: $2 million
Success Metrics & Evaluations
Awareness
• Increase Top of Mind Awareness: This will be measured by ad spending and social media presence. For
example, since the objective is to create top of mind awareness by 25% ad spending would need to
increase by a minimum of 50%. Awareness will also be measured by social media presence and
engagement with consumers via hashtags, likes, shares etc…
Research
• Increase website traffic and email newsletter database by 10%: This will be measured by web traffic
including; unique visitors and page views, and number of email newsletter subscribers
Purchase:
• Increase market share by 20% and increase rank from 6th to 4th: This will be measured by quarterly
profits, and return on investments compared to before campaign.
Advocacy
• Increase social media engagement and testimonials on Gatorade’s Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram
account’s by 30%: This will be measured by social media engagement with hashtags, likes, shares, and
comments.
Appendices
SWOT
Strengths
• Market Share: Market leader in sports drinks market with 69.5% share
• Brand Awareness: Well-known sports drink brand
Weakness
• Market Share: Growth in Gatorade volumes have slowed down; slipped from 5th position to 6th position in LRB brands
• Target: Limiting target audience to only athletes
•
•
•
•
•
Opportunities
Trends: Increase products with more natural and botanical flavors
Trends: Sports drink volumes grew by 3%
Target: Increase production of “hydration beverages” to reach broader population
Campaign Awareness: Increase awareness of natural drinks to bring attention to and grow market share
• Threats
• Public Perception: Criticized for high calorie and sugar content
• Competition: Gatorade position and volume negatively impacted by competition in the bottle water, energy drinks, ready
to drink tea, and coffee
Appendices
References
Kaplan, Jennifer “Gatorade Goes Organic As Pepsi-Co Joins Natural Product Push.” Bloomber.com, 30 August 2016.
Claveria, Kelvin “How to Engage Millennials for Customer Insight & Marketing.” Visioncritical.com, 12 August 2016
Simons, Nora “Consumers Ideas of Healthy Foods Changing.” NewHope.com
Berry, Donna “Beverage Trends 2016” Foodbusinessnews.net, 12 January 2016
Odden, Lee “5 Valuable Hashtag Marketing Strategies Proven To Engage Audiences” Keyhole.co,
Leone, Chris “How Much Should You Budget For Marketing in 2017” Webstrategiesinc.com, 20 October 2016
Severson, Dana “The Average Cost of National Advertising Campaigns” Yourbusiness.azcentral.com
Hochman, Johnathan “The Costs of Pay Per Click Advertising– Trends and Analysis” Hochmanconsultants.com 22
February 2016
Haskins, Christine, “What Matters To Millenials-6 Insights You Can’t Ignore” Ideastogo.com 22 August 2014
Kusek, Kathleen, “Gatorade Turns 50” Forbes.com 3 January 2015