Gatorade
Innovating a CPG business through digital
What we did
- User research
- Defined digital strategy & roadmap
- Website redesign
- Design, development of first digital product
- Data analysis and algorithm translation
- Branding
- Writing
Overview
For over 56 years, Gatorade has studied athletes and developed innovative products to help players perform at their best. The brand knew the path to transformation and building even stronger customer relationships was through digital, and tapped Work & Co for guidance.
Combining Gatorade’s knowledge of athletes’ needs with our understanding of the digital landscape, we created a strategy and roadmap for an ecosystem of digital product touchpoints, then systematically developed and launched them. The Gx app, the redesigned Gatorade.com, and the Highlights app each offer a strategic avenue through which to connect with consumers: wearable-assisted sports training technology, content empowering youth athletes, and a new web experience, respectively. In a relatively short time, we’ve defined and executed key steps to expand Gatorade’s presence across sports and fitness by extending the brand’s value to athletes. In 2022, we launched a new version of Gx to amplify Gatorade’s latest innovations, and bring Gatorade’s knowledge and expertise to more athletes.
Our work, past and future, is a partnership towards an evolved brand experience. The products we’ve helped Gatorade deliver revolve entirely around delivering exciting and authentic engagements that change the perception of the brand: Gatorade is not simply a packaged consumable manufacturer, but a data-centric tech company with the insights and tools to uplevel athletes and teams. Gatorade is still in the early stages of an immense transformation, and Work & Co will continue to support its evolution through data, technology, and design.
"Innovation isn’t about a single launch, but rather constantly iterating and improving features to bring Gatorade’s decades of sports science research previously only available to professional athletes and make it accessible to athletes of all kinds. Our ongoing relationship with Work & Co has supported this kind of innovation and given us the firepower to both build and evolve exciting digital experiences for athletes."
Awards & recognition
CES Innovation Award, Software & Mobile Apps, Honoree Read More
Apps, Mobile, and Voice: Best User Experience, Honoree Read More
Best use of data, Shortlist Read More
Innovation by Design: Sports & Recreation, Honoree Read More
Best running gear of 2021 Read More
Most compelling examples of personalization Read More
Press
The PepsiCo-owned brand continues its innovation push. Read more
Why Gatorade wants to analyze your sweat. Read more
Gatorade made a smart patch that measures your sweat and hydration. Read more
Gatorade's Wearable Gx Sweat Patch Measures Sweat and Hydration Levels. Read more
Gatorade Created a Wearable Patch That Tells You How Much Gatorade to Drink. Read more
Young athletes can show off skills with Gatorade's new app. Read more
Gatorade’s new Gx Sweat Patch tests your sweat for smarter hydration. Read more
3 Big Takeaways
Identifying opportunities
Reexamined audiences
To help Gatorade forge into its first digital product experiences, we first helped the brand understand their audiences in new ways, transitioning from demographic segments to more actionable need-based segments. By understanding what experiences their consumer base wanted, we could rethink the brand’s offerings to interact with athletes in new ways.
Extended brand value
We developed concepts for a series of products designed to empower athletes on their journey in new ways. Each tool helps to reposition Gatorade not just as a sports drink, but as a tech-savvy company providing a digital teammate, cheerleader, trainer, and coach to athletes and teams.
Long-term alliance
Our partnership is not about one-off projects, but operational shifts to transcend the brand. Together, Gatorade and Work & Co have established a long-term roadmap to incrementally anchor the brand’s role in sports with the release of each product. We’ve helped to execute user research, extract insights from data, identify new prospects, and bring proof of concepts to life—all of which aim to holistically transform Gatorade’s perception, opportunities, and business.
The roadmap in action
Gx Platform
The Gx app is Gatorade’s platform to help each athlete enhance performance based on their individual needs and preferences, enabling athletes of all kinds to train, fuel, and recover through programs designed with elite professionals like Serena Williams, Jayson Tatus, and Lionel Messi. By integrating with Gatorade’s Sweat Patch and Smart Gx Bottle to athlete activities, the Gx app makes sophisticated recommendations and offers opportunities to purchase supplemental Gatorade products directly within the interface.
For this product, we first helped the Gatorade Sports Science Institute create a new process to measure the connections between hydration, performance, and recovery, which were used by researchers and professional strength coaches we partnered with, to inform variable fueling and training recommendations for athletes. We also translated those recommendations into digital algorithms for the Gx app, then designed and developed the app itself. The new Gx release represents decades of meticulous research, rich data, and science-backed intelligence, now brought to athletes of all levels.
Highlights
Younger users demand authenticity and want to engage with brands on their own terms. With Highlights, we developed Gatorade’s first digital product reaching youth athletes: an app that gives them the tools to make themselves a star. Highlights delivers the authenticity they want and amplifies their journey towards outstanding performance, connecting them directly with Gatorade through an ownable, unique, and on-brand experience.
Gatorade.com
New, inspirational sports content on the Gatorade site strengthens the relationship between consumers and the brand. Engagement provides an opportunity for Gatorade to understand their customers’ interests and experiences, and develop a new level of brand loyalty.
Partnership beyond digital
Upleveled digital maturity
Our team has led Gatorade to adopt a state-of-the-art digital tech stack. The brand has trusted our recommendations to introduce cutting-edge databases, software, and programming languages into their workflow.
Management & training
Not only did we help educate the Gatorade team on the new tools, we also provided training on how to manage a modern organization structure. Despite multiple business units with separate goals and interests working on shared code bases, we introduced and deployed best practices to accommodate both innovation and stability.
Scientific research
Our team has also been actively involved in initiatives that support Gatorade’s tech innovations beyond design and development. We’ve lent a hand on projects involving machine learning and artificial intelligence, assisted in the health research that powers the product insights, and translated scientific insights into algorithms that drive the products’ logic engines.
Partner with us
Work & Co, part of Accenture Song, is trusted by the world’s leading companies to drive growth and bring innovative solutions to market. Together we can build and scale your core digital products.
Stay informed
Get occasional updates about our digital products, news, and events.