Published on
June 3, 2024
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Welcome to the Breakdown, a weekly roundup of the best real-life marketing examples, created for marketers and agency folk that want to create work that actually works.
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In this Breakdown, we're looking at ✨ sports anthems ✨ - the kind of advertising that turns sport into myth, taking leaves out of the greatest sports movies ever made. All to make you buy something.
Gatorade revive a decades-old line for a new generation.
Roaring back from the 90s, the “Is it in you?” line has come back to life in “It hasn’t changed”, this latest (and biggest, in terms of media spend) campaign from Gatorade ever.
The message has morphed too. Gatorade have focused on youth sports participation, and how sports drops off for kids around high school. The campaign features various young athlete stars who have all got it in them - the spark, the determination, the grit, the Gatorade-tinged sweat - to prove the point that young people have what it takes to overcome anything.
Michael Jordan, Gatorade’s first athlete ambassador, rejoins the brand to narrate this new ad.
God it’s good stuff. The kind of ad that makes you want to jump up and just run or throw a ball or something. It’s a whole dare-to-win, just-do-it, be-the-best kind of vibe. We’ve seen this kind of work before (and, dare I say it, i actually think Nike perfected the art form with this ad - but then I am a football fan after all). I have no idea how effective work like this is at ultimately driving sales, but I do know that work like this certainly makes you feel more positively about the brand. Effectiveness be damned if that isn’t a relevant metric to shift.
Paddy Power take a funnier look at the ‘sports anthem’ genre.
Usually it’s a simple formula. Tell some sort of sports rags to riches story in 60 seconds, with a voiceover that makes you amped up enough to put your head through a wall.
But perennial banterists Paddy Power have gone down the humour route. With the Euros almost upon us, they took a look at why England might be everyone’s favourites this summer.
Danny Dyer leads the ad, poking fun at English fans and how actually, just maybe, we might be one of the favourites heading into the Euros.
Europeans give their reasons for why England are the favourites. Our ability to seamlessly blend in to any culture. Our awful football sense of humour. Our inability to let go of the past.
Once again, Paddy Power have struck just the right nerve with their sense of humour. The whole ad mocks British football fans, and yet somehow it’s hard not to feel weirdly proud of our odd little island when you watch it. England have always been the most depressing of underdogs when it comes to football - decidedly worse than the best, but good enough to be disliked by the rest. And so all our national footballing quirks, annoying as they are to everyone else, are put to use having a bit of a laugh at our own expense. Amidst all the very serious sports anthem ads, this one really stands out for getting the job done without the drama. Just a good sense of humour.
Adidas get us psyched up for the beginning of a summer of football.
David Beckham narrates Adidas’ first piece of sumer football comms - a 90 second film that whirls through the pressures that football’s stars are about to face.
The pressure on this year’s crop of young stars, like Jude Bellingham and Florian Wirtz. Or the pressure of making and repeating history, faced by Lionel Messi and Gianluigi Donnarumma.
The ad is par for the course for this kind of video - it’s inspirational and uplifting, and it does what every great sports movie does: it turns sport into a reflection of life, writ on the biggest stage.
But there are a few things that tickled me in particular. And it comes from the fact that it feels like this ad was made by sports fans. Small references, like the one to Ousmane Dembele’s weak foot (when he famously doesn’t really have one), or the one to some iconic commentary for a Leo Messi goal (something that sounds suspiciously like “ankara Messi” gets drowned out at about 0:51) - these make the ad feel just that bit richer. There’s stuff to find in here.
Like the fact that Adidas full-on leaked the new Real Madrid kit in the final seconds of the ad. I don’t know if it was completely intentional, or if they just happened to have the new kit around since, you know, they make it. But that flicker of white gets people excited - and Adidas know it.
They’ve put together this mosaic of football moments and storytelling, and it just gets the people going.
If I haven’t made it clear already, I don’t know if this kind of marketing is effective or not. But I wanted to take a break from that line of thinking to just appreciate when good marketing can make you feel good. Adidas have made a 90 second film that for football lovers, is endlessly rewatchable. Huge superstar talent has featured in all three ads, and maybe that is a requirement for a sports anthem ad. But my word, does it work. If I hadn’t injured my knee during my trials at West Ham when I was younger, then I’d be sprinting for the nearest pitch, court, field, lawn, arena, turf, track or whatever else.