PepsiCo’s Gatorade viral video: an unintentional digital home run

This article discusses the success of a viral video produced for PepsiCo's Gatorade brand by the agency Element 79, which achieved some six million views in the three months following its release, as well as attracting a significant amount of mainstream media attention.

PepsiCo’s Gatorade viral video: an unintentional digital home run

Thom Forbes

A viral video produced for PepsiCo’s Gatorade brand that made a splash on the internet - there were nearly six million views from mid-June to early September 2008 and widespread coverage in traditional media - seems to have harnessed all of the viral potential of interactive media.

Even more impressively, the spot appears to be the antithesis of the in-your-face brand bluster of traditional beverage advertising. There is no mention of Gatorade in the internet video; indeed, a bottle...

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