Gatorade is the brand most people think of when it comes to sports drinks.
It’s ubiquitous across every level of American sports, from sideline coolers at high school football games to the benches of professional teams in leagues like the NBA and NFL.
That visibility has helped Gatorade corner the U.S. sports drink market, where it holds a 60% share.
Simply put, Gatorade is a dominant brand domestically. But dominance at home doesn’t guarantee dominance abroad. As a global brand, its success ultimately depends on how well it performs in other markets too.
In 2025, Gatorade showed just how effective it can be in drawing attention to its brand in another market.
Where, exactly?
In Argentina!
Photo from Unsplash
Argentinians are known for being avid football (soccer) fans… and that provided Gatorade with the opportunity to draw eyeballs in the country.
How?
By addressing a specific pain point every Argentinian football fan doesn’t want to experience each time they watch a game: Getting the worst seat.
Not everyone who watches a game gets the privilege of watching it from a good seat with an unobstructed and immersive view. This is an inescapable experience. Even the luckiest of fans are still forced to get undesirable seats from time to time.
This time, though, Gatorade decided to step in by giving a few deserving fans seats that gave them a great view of the game.
The brand pulled this off not through buying up available seats, but by giving lucky fans an incredible spot to sit in: the Gatorade coolers located in the sidelines!
Image from The Drum
According to creative agency R/GA, Gatorade’s partner for this campaign, the gatorade cooler is:
“A spot that’s always been on the sidelines, sometimes used by players or coaches, but never by fans. Technically, it’s not even a seat, but it became the best one in the stadium.”
The rationale for using Gatorade coolers made sense. Since these were located around the sidelines, those who got to sit on them throughout a football game got a great view!
How exactly did Gatorade and R/GA choose the lucky fans?
By using social media and some tech wizardry!
According to R/GA, fans typically post photos of the games they watch on social media platforms like X (formerly Twitter).
So, what the agency did was build a bot that combed through various social media posts and compared that with viewership data gathered from games, like the distance of a person from the field and the visual obstructions fans encounter when watching.
From all of that data, the R/GA and Gatorade were able to evaluate which fans were most deserving of the coolest seats in the stadium!
What were the results of the “Cool Seats” campaign??
- It drew 15,000 participants.
- It generated 360 minutes of earned media.
- It earned an engagement rate of over 45%.
- It received 62 million impressions.
- It achieved a 63% click-through rate.
Aside from those results, the “Cool Seats” campaign also received attention from media outfits like ESPN, The Drum, and accolades from awards-giving bodies like D&AD.
It isn’t an exaggeration to say that “Cool Seats” was a successful campaign for Gatorade.
“Cool Seats” performed so well because of how it drew eyeballs for Gatorade.
By putting a creative twist on a pain point every fan gets to experience, Gatorade and R/GA were able to meaningfully engage their target audience.
This success story shows just how effective guerrilla marketing campaigns can be, even for established brands like Gatorade.
That said, your brand doesn’t have to be an established one for this strategy to work.
All you really need to do is find a pain point and address it in a witty, meaningful, and highly creative way!
About The Dynamic Marketing Communiqué’s
“Fridays: Gorillas of Guerrilla Marketing”
Jay Conrad Levinson (1984) said that Guerrilla Marketing “works because it’s simple to appreciate, easy to execute, and inexpensive.”
Guerrilla Marketing is unconventional.
Looking beyond the traditional ways of advertising, marketers and advertisers need to spice things up in order for their brand to have campaigns that not only make an impact but also stick to their target market’s mind.
Guerrilla Marketing usually aims to have direct contact with consumers.
This type of direct contact should spark an emotional reaction that leads to consumers effectively remembering the brand.
It’s about making a big impression and making that impression last a long time (if not forever).
Guerrilla Marketing can be inexpensive.
The effect of this is being able to create a buzz around the brand, and the strategy used to market it. Almost everything is passed around through word-of-mouth.
Word-of-mouth is one of the greatest outcomes and it usually doesn’t cost anything.
This is every business’ or brand’s dream!
Every Friday, we publish tips, examples, and other useful content on unconventional ways of marketing and promotion.
Learn more about how to grab your target market’s attention and make an amazing first and lasting impression without having to spend a lot of money.
Businesses don’t really need to spend much for a guerrilla campaign. You do not need a big budget to be successful. You just need creativity and a good imagination.
Hope you find this week’s guerrilla marketing insight interesting and helpful.
Stay tuned for next Friday’s “Gorillas of Guerrilla Marketing!”
Cheers,
Dyane Diasanta
Senior Content Writer
Valens Dynamic Marketing Capabilities
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