MJ. Serena. Messi. Gatorade has always worked with the greatest sports athletes of all time.

Due to this heritage, there was a perception that Gatorade was only for professionals. This was reflected through a market share decrease in one of its stronghold markets, the Philippines.

By working with Drink Water Rivera, a regular student with a unique name, we broke the mould for the type of ambassadors Gatorade would normally partner with.

Likewise, by rooting the work in local insight that Filipinos love giving their children unique names, we made sure it resonated emotionally in the market.

Sometimes your past success gets in the way of your future growth. So for every brand there comes a time when they need to, in the famous words of Billy Beane (wonderfully portrayed by Brad Pitt in Moneyball), “adapt or die.”

Coming out of the pandemic, Gatorade was struggling to maintain market share in the Philippines with its main competitor rapidly gaining ground - especially with a casual active audience.

Due to Gatorade’s heritage and iconic advertising with some of the greatest athletes of our time, there was a perception that Gatorade was only for professionals and serious athletes.

This meant that people who just hit the gym now and then, or played sports casually with friends didn’t think Gatorade was for them.

The introduction of Gatorade No Sugar gave us an opportunity to speak to a broader active audience, drive consideration in more occasions, and strengthen the brand’s position.

Due to Gatorade’s limiting perception of being a big global brand only for serious or professional athletes, we couldn’t rely on the traditional use of brand ambassadors to deliver our message, we needed to find a fresh approach that would connect locally.

In the Philippines, it’s very common for people to get creative with naming their children - from Covid Bryant, to Sincerely Yours (yes, those are real). As we were working on this brief, one name in particular caught our attention.

A student called Drink Water Rivera had just gone viral due to his name, and from interviews we found out his life motto: hydration is life.

Some partnerships are meant to be.

We thought this would be the perfect opportunity for Gatorade to partner with someone unexpected and relatable to deliver our key message in a fun and unexpected way.

Our campaign idea was born: Water drinks Gatorade.

Most people know that dehydration is bad and that it can negatively impact performance.

What most people don’t know is that when they sweat they lose more than just water.

In fact, sweat contains electrolytes such as sodium and potassium that play an important role in keeping the body functioning, so not replacing them can negatively impact both cognitive and physical performance.

Through audience research, we found that since the pandemic, people in the Philippines were taking their health more seriously. Additionally, we uncovered that 50% of fitness exercisers believed that water was enough to sufficiently replenish what they lost in sweat when active.

This outlined the opportunity to drive relevance by delivering an educational message around the science of hydration: you lose more than water when you sweat.

Although an important message, we needed to find a way to deliver it in a compelling and culturally relevant way.

This comedic-style mockumentary featured a real person called Drink Water Rivera, a personality that had trended in the Philippines around January 2023.

We see him talk about the origin of his name starting from his mother’s pregnancy, when she craved for water during his birth. He also goes on to say that hydration is life.

We show him using water in all of life’s important moments: at the office, in a bar, at a wedding, and even sleeping on a waterbed.

However, there was one occasion in which, to everyone’s shock, Drink Water doesn’t choose water: when he’s working out. That’s when he chooses Gatorade No Sugar, because even Drink Water knows that to ensure optimal hydration and replace everything he loses in sweat, he needs a Gatorade.

In a day, the film garnered over 2.9 million views and over 19 million earned media reach.

The news spread even further as it was shared thousands of times and was even picked up by over 53 media outlets around the world.

It’s too soon to tell what the impact was on brand perception, but from the comments and 93% net sentiment score it’s clear that people absolutely loved it.

It showed a completely new side to the “old serious sports performance brand” to a new active audience and Gatorade No Sugar’s sales increased by 237% vs last year, beating out all competition, which grew at lower rates (Pocari +36%, Powerade +55%).