Pause Really is Power: Powerade's Slam Dunk Storytelling

In our ad of the week - we are taking a look at a commercial that capitalizes on a huge conversation in sports right now. . . .

Taking a break. 

Powerade’s ad builds on a cultural conversation filled with tension, controversy, admiration and appreciation. A loaded start when talking about a sports drink. 

And that backgrounds story bodes well in this case! 

Evaluating this ad with our Brainiac Team, we measured brains watching this content and received one of the highest Immersion scores for the commercial in the history of our ad of the week - 81 our of 100! 

81 is 28 points higher than the industry norm of 53 for this kind of content. 

How did they do it? 

Well, you know we are fans of storytelling here at Immersion. There are countless measurements backing up this as the main way to drive immersion and therefore recall and sales with your ads. 

Powerade did an amazing job of building on the momentum in a cultural story of athletes taking a pause. 

“Athletes’ mental wellbeing, and the pressure they are placed under, took the spotlight last year when U.S. gymnast Simone Biles withdrew from the competition during last year’s Olympics. Japanese tennis player Naomi Osaka, a top-tier tennis player, similarly withdrew from Wimbledon to take “personal time” last summer.,” explains Stephen Lepitak from AdWeek. “The pressure to perform and win can be highly intense.”  

At the nearly halfway point, they even feature Simone Biles - the gymnast who famously took her own pause from the olympics last year. This cameo feature a slight bump in the already positive Immersion. 

We know that normally cameos don’t drive increases in immersion but, in this case - it built on the tension of the story and drove consumer’s  immersion up a point or two while she was on screen. 

Watch the full measurement and ad here: 

Great ads tell stories. Powerade did amazing work building on a story that was already being told. And we expect their spike in sales from this high immersion advertisement will be worth the effort.