Gatorade · Brand Activation · 2024
Gatorade 5v5
Created by our founder, Debra Natasha Pogorelsky, at PepsiCo — 5v5 was hers from concept to execution: the original idea, the competition format, the brand platform, and the global rollout markets still run today.
Brief
Build a youth soccer platform that scales across markets, content, retail, and culture — year after year. Part of Gatorade's Fuel Tomorrow mission to keep teens in sport, 5v5 sends local qualifiers all the way to a Global Final staged in the UEFA Champions League host city, the same week as the final.
Approach
- 01360 campaign architecture: online, offline, and in-retail, built to scale by market
- 02Local-to-national qualifier format — regional finalists advance to a national championship, national champions to the Global Final
- 03Long-form content engine designed to extend the platform between activations, including a feature documentary follow of the Cantera 5v5 squads
- 04Sports sponsorship integration with UEFA, regional federations and national soccer associations
Our role — concept to execution
This wasn't a brief we answered. Our founder originated Gatorade 5v5 from a blank page at PepsiCo and carried it from concept to execution — inventing the format, writing the platform strategy, securing the UEFA Champions League integration, designing the local-to-global qualifier architecture, and then being on the ground for the builds, the qualifiers, and the Global Finals. Agencies and federations executed against a system she created, led, and ran in market.
Outcome
Teen players through the platform
Countries competing
Champions League host-city finals
In their words
“A platform we could run again every year in every market — that's rarer than a good idea.”
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