Last month, Gatorade introduced their, “For The Love of Sport” program, focusing on youth athletes and their ambitions. The sports drink brand is looking to expand its high school awards program in the United States, it has generated new-look bottles featuring the likes of Lionel Messi, Serena Williams, Paul George and Usain Bolt, as well as making a number of donations to charities focusing on youth development, particularly in sport.
In part of the lead-up to the Rio Olympic Games, Gatorade joined forces with Academy Award winning animation studio, Moonbot, to create a short film that would promote the Games, and also join onto the digital trend that will be sure to dominate Rio.
The short film features Usain Bolt, right back from when he was a child growing up in Jamaica. While Gatorade and Moonbot could have taken the glamourous route and written a film highlighting the fame and glory that comes with being Usain Bolt, they decided to take a more personal approach, underlining the challenges Bolt had to overcome as a youth to become the world’s fastest man. The film runs for just over 7 minutes and is titled, ‘The Boy Who Learned To Fly’.
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There are a range of other advertisements featuring Gatorade’s high-profile athletes, however, Moonbot’s creation and recount of Usain Bolt’s journey to the present day is one of the best we’ve seen.
Obviously, it’s aimed at building people’s anticipation of the Games and Bolt’s performance in what should be his last ever, but it also highlights the often unknown challenges involved in an athlete making it to the Olympics. The film does a wonderful job at both generating excitement, but also showing young athletes that the road to success will not always be smooth, and encourages the youth to work hard for their dreams.
Moonbot and Gatorade are an interesting pairing and reflect how traditional sports brands are adapting to the digital age. Here is the video they created together: