In January 2012 we reported on the 10 marketing trends to watch and trends #6 (experiential embraces technology) and #7 (Gamification) were taken to the streets in late 2011 for Gatorade at the Nike Women's Marathon and Half Marathon in San Francisco.
The challenge: Provide athletes with a memorable experience that set the stage for their upcoming race and helped them understand the importance of sports nutrition while running.
The solution: We created The G Series PRO Sports Nutrition Zone race simulation and connected runners to the brand through gesture control technology ("GestureTek Cube") that allowed athletes to step into the screen and test their sports nutrition knowledge in an interactive way.
Gatorade products are heavily rooted in science, and as such, hawkeye designed and programmed the simulation to have a sleek, realistic feel with a link to the scientific principles behind sports nutrition. To begin, runners would be introduced to a Gatorade Sports Science Institute (GSSI) representative and tap the "Start" indicator on the floor mat.
Once they had received the instructions, the simulation started with a pre-race scenario that prompted runners to select they would eat/drink prior to running by tapping their foot. The zone meter on the right side of the screen would register the appropriate relative amount of carbohydrates, electrolytes and fluid.
After selecting an option before the "race," the screen would change and the runner would step into the shoes on the starting line to begin the race simulation.
The road began moving and nutritional items slowly moved toward the runner, whose task was to select the appropriate products with the necessary nutritional elements to keep the zone meter on the right at optimal levels. For example, selecting only water would raise the blue fluid meter, but the carbohydrates and electrolyte meters were unchanged; if the athlete selected G Series PRO Endurance Formula, all three meters rose to reflect the nutritional benefits provided by that product during the race. During the entire simulation, which was timed to be a "sped-up" 3:30 marathon, the GSSI representative provided sports nutrition insight and recommendations based on what the athlete was selecting.
Once the race ended and the athlete crossed the finish line, the Post-Race screen displayed items for athletes to choose as they would for race recovery.
A final screen would show totals of consumption before, during and after the "race", at which point the athletes briefly received a valuable, overarching sports nutrition consultation from the GSSI representative.
As you can see from the photo below, the simulation was popular. Gatorade was able to present the science of sports nutrition to athletes through an innovative, interactive and personal medium, while providing the athletes with advice and information from experts on the topic.
