Gatorade 5v5

Background

Gatorade, the F&B brand known for its high energy sports drinks and even higher energy branding, came to us with a dynamic challenge: To redesign the branding for their football tournament, Gatorade 5v5. The tournament is aimed at young people from different countries, encouraging them to compete in teams to reach the ultimate goal of a place in the Champions League.

Process

The tournament was happening imminently, so the team from DS went to Dublin to work directly in collaboration with the Gatorade creative teams in an Immersion sprint. Across 2 days together, we workshopped ideas, sketched logos and finished the last session with a concept everyone was excited to take forward. Our brand idea was 'Level Up'.

Brand Expression

Inspired by the language of gaming and the language of sports, 'Level up' rewards athletes with a gamified experience, expressed with tone of voice such as 'Power up' and 'Fuel up'. The toolkit responds to this with animated badges and stickers, which can be playfully integrated with players to bring photography to life in an expressive, ownable way. We created textures using heat maps as inspiration, capturing the human energy on the pitch, which gives a unique visual language.

The typography reflects the journey through the tournament, layering type either in a step by step way, or with one word punching big and bold at the end to signify a big move or ultimate success. Black and white photography showcases the authenticity and 'rawness' of the young players, while also providing a contrast with the bold Gatorade orange and the visual language of the brand.

The G5v5 tournament logo uses the iconic Gatorade 'bolt' symbol and brings this into a playful 2D and 3D space, behaving like a part of the gaming sticker family with the ability to be placed anywhere in scaled up large and bold.

The resulting brand expression takes the tournament into a completely new and exciting place, energising existing players, and enticing new players to take part and sign up. The continuous link to the Gatorade umbrella brand means the positive impact feeds back and raises the profile of the overarching company.