Traditionally sports drinks celebrate the elite doing the impossible. But we uncovered data to indicate that 60% of Sports drinks were actually consumed outside of sporting occasions…

So, we challenged the conventions of the category and celebrated everyday people just living it large (with our BIG 1 litre bottles).

Driven by consumer insights, 28 different tongue-in-cheek ‘lord awards’ were created that celebrated the 'unsung heroes' among our core audience of 18-39 y.o Aussie males.

Three million Maximus bottles were transformed into ‘trophies’, each one speaking to different interests and accomplishments among regular blokes, in a vernacular that was unapologetically real.

#AWARDALORD was promoted on pack & throughout all media, encouraging consumers to share why they should be crowned the ‘lord of lords’ in a bid to win $1 million. Knowing our audience love to brag, they became proud ambassadors for the brand and a media channel in itself.

The campaign focused on driving mental and physical awareness to unlock maximum reach and distribution, nationally between March 1 and April 25, 2017. #AWARDALORD was brought to life across all touchpoints.

On Pack: 3 million customised trophy bottles featured 28 unique lord personas.

POS: Championed the Million-dollar prize, securing high visibility and shelf position.

Social: Shared the voice of consumers through bespoke ‘lord’ videos and celebrating UGC. Targeted micro messaging relayed content based off interests.

Influencers: Celebrated specific and relevant “lord” content to their audiences.

Digital: Interactive banners were targeted and linked to our microsite, where further engagement and information about the competition mechanic could be found.

Radio: Pre records and live reads were executed within programs heard by our specific demographic

OOH: Positioning of billboards tactically spoke to relevant consumers in each environment.

Sampling: Pushed trial and targeted key audience areas (footy awards sampled at footy games etc).

Reach KPI: 5million

Eyeballs are measurable, but an overall consistent impression from all channels working together is at the heart.

Result: 13million (increase 260%)

Consumer engagement KPI: 500k

Hand over the communication to our audience, speaking in their language and letting them have a conversation back to us (and their peers)

Result: 1million + engagements in social and digital!

Sales KPI: Increase 5% from highest peak period & drive 100k new trial during campaign period

Result: Uplift overall of 34% plus 175,000 increase in trial in first month of campaign period!!

Return on investment KPI: Positive measurable sales ROI that also drives all other objectives

Result: 174% ROI on NSV!!

In store visibility KPI: A campaign that can secure in store self space to maintain high in store visibility

Result: Our biggest presence across the largest number of stores to date!

‘Award a Lord’ demonstrated four distinct levels of integration:

Media: A fully integrated channel plan took into account the environment and behaviours of consumers. This was holistic, throughout on-pack, POS, OOH, sampling, radio, digital and social.

Culture: Consumer behaviours and sub-cultures were vital in shaping an integrated idea, impacting everything from language used, to tactical executions and communications of all levels.

Data: Statistics and Insights were integrated into the idea conception, uncovering the positioning opportunity and the on pack personas that mirrored audience behaviours.

We even crafted integrated objectives of reach and engagement to drive trial and sales.

After strategically cementing our point of difference from the duopoly, we unlocked ways to connect with niche groups within our wider audience. We knew our consumers were competitive outside of sport; we just had to reach them tactically.

Gathering insights among Males 18-39 through Facebook analytics, social interests, Aztec scan buying trends and Roy Morgan consumer behaviour data, we developed 28 lord personas that mirrored real life characteristics of our audience.

Strategically, each tongue in cheek bottle unlocked a unique audience as well as way of communicating; allowing the brand to become a chameleon by seamlessly infiltrating the multiple cultural environments it was integrated into.

For example; we celebrated ‘Car Lords’ with Car content at Car events and ‘Office Lords’ were reached in CBD environments.

The diverse range of bottles allowed us to speak to an audience who would not normally relate to our brand, inciting trial through peer-to-peer sharing.

Situation:

In Australia, the sports drink category was previously dominated by 2 major players; Gatorade and Powerade. In 2012, Frucor developed a challenger brand; Maximus - to disrupt the duopoly with ambitions of growing and stealing share. Previously Maximus has centred it’s communications around the functional attributes of it’s proposition- size. However, with the launch of Powerade and Gatorade’s strategic size play, bottle size was no longer a competitive advantage.

Brief:

Drive differentiation and relevance. Create a reason for consumers to seek out the brand, pick up a bottle and share our message amongst their peers.

Objectives:

Reach

KPI: 5million

Consumer engagement

KPI: 500k

Sales

KPI: Increase 5% from previous peak period & drive 100k trial increase

Return on investment

KPI: Positive measurable sales ROI that drives all other objectives

In store visibility:

KPI: Secure in store self space to maintain high in store visibility