When I first saw this giant ad at the local mall, I wondered why would you advertise Gatorade in the mall. The target demographics were way off. When you think of the typical mall shopper you have soccer moms, tweens, and teenage girls. The teenage guys at the mall are usually looking at the teenage girls so the impact on them is muted.
The placement was dead on actually. Gatorade hung 2 or 3 huge banners from the rafters that read, “Available here at vending machines throughout the mall” with a large, impactful image of their bottle.
I spent the rest of my time shopping looking for the machines, which, for the first time, were easy to find thanks to their signage on the machines. I had never really paid attention to the drink machines prior to this day. After finding the first machine, I saw numerous shoppers drinking Gatorade at the mall. This was ingenious.
One Comment
The Gatorade ad in the mall is more ‘in-the-moment’ advertising which works great. I normally see Coke commercials on TV, at the theater, or online, trying to subliminally (brainwashingly) get me to buy Coke later… but not necessarily when I’m around a tasty beverage machine. By having the Gatorade ad located in a spot I can likely turn the corner to buy – odds are, I’ll buy Gatorade over Coke.