merit
Meet Fast Twitch, Gatorade’s new energy drink designed to bring athletes to the next level.
As their agency of record, SPCSHP was tasked to find a way to demonstrate what this drink can do for athletes in a big way on social.
Gatorade’s Fast Twitch is energy like the world has never seen — the basic math of it is “Athlete + Fast Twitch = Whoa!” It propels athletes’ existing energy, allowing them to go the extra mile and be faster and stronger. We wanted to create something that showed this in a completely unexpected way.
With the charismatic Seattle Seahawks receiver DK Metcalf on the Fast Twitch team, we orchestrated a viral moment showing him making a gravity-defying catch that was so impressive it blurred the lines between real and fake. With a “shot on iPhone” approach that’s native to social, our video was believable enough to get the entire internet going Woah! Can DK REALLY jump that high?
The brief was “simple”: show the world what is possible with Fast Twitch energy through a scroll-stopping viral moment – without a big budget.
Going viral in itself was our biggest challenge — the internet is fickle, and can tell when a brand is trying too hard. So we were intentionally extremely subtle with our branding and product so users weren’t thrown off by an obvious ‘ad’. Then, we strategically played up the dichotomy between a casual social video and a superhuman athletic moment to catch people off guard.
To ensure our video would break through cluttered social feeds, we capitalized on DK’s participation in the The NBA All Star Celebrity Game. We knew there’d be chatter about his ability to dunk - which would add fuel to the fire of his spectacular ups powered by Fast Twitch.
In short, going viral is like catching lightning in a bottle. Thankfully, DK is very good at catching things.
The video ignited an all out firestorm. Fans debated whether the jump was real or fake, memed it, gave their best hot takes, created videos breaking down the physics of the jump, examined it pixel by pixel for video editing, and reacted to it on TikTok. The video trended on X for two days straight. The NFL even requested that DK take a drug test after the video went live.
It all started on the Fast Twitch social channels, then the video was shared all over, building street cred when accounts like House of Highlights and Barstool organically reposted, along with features in ESPN, Fox Sports and TMZ. All of this attention led to a significant leap in followers and brand name recognition.
Even now, over a year later, the video is still resurfacing on social, continuing the debate and showing the power of Fast Twitch Energy.
Video Views: 315MM
Engagements: 15.8MM
Owned Impressions: 4.2MM
Earned Media Placements: 200
Sales exceeded every benchmark in the first few weeks of being on shelves
