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Marketing Manager, Gatorade | PepsiCo Beverages Canada | Mississauga, Ont. | Age: 28
How do you convince the brass at PepsiCo Beverages Canada that a welterweight ultimate fighting champ would be a good ambassador for what has traditionally been seen as a stick and ball brand?
You sell his accomplishments and align it with the brand, says Ryan Collis, the 28-year-old marketing manager of Gatorade.
UFC fighter Georges St. Pierre was one of six Canadian athletes Collis helped draft for the national “G” campaign in support of the sports drink’s new brand identity. “[St. Pierre’s] accomplishments and who he is as an athlete really resembles the heart, hustle and soul of what the Gatorade brand is,” says Collis.
However, it was an idea that senior leadership didn’t immediately buy, says Andy Harkness, VP sports marketing at SDI Marketing, one of the brand’s six agency partners. But “with fact-based information and strategic vision, [Collis] was able to help us convince Dale Hooper [VP of marketing] that this is the right business decision,” says Harkness. “If it’s right he’ll find a way of making it work.”
It was a decision that scored well with consumers. Athletes shared what they considered the most memorable moment of their career in 30-second “G Moment” TV spots developed by TB WA Toronto. St. Pierre’s spot was the most watched video on YouTube Canada the weekend after it aired.
High-school basketball player Bradd Arseneau, survivor of the January 2008 bus crash that killed seven teammates in Bathurst, N.B. was also asked to join the “G” team. The pick was PR gold, garnering more than 22 million media impressions. The commercials aired during a sponsorship buy on CBC ’s Coach’s Corner and drove consumers to WhatsG.ca, where they could share their own “G” moments. “He’s a strategic thinker, he’s a proactive marketer and he has the ability to think short and long term,” says Harkness.
It was Collis’ foresight that had the young marketer toasting a Stanley Cup victory well before the playoffs began. Through negotiations between the brand’s media agency OMD, the CBC agreed to air a 30-second congratulatory spot as part of its national broadcast, after the final game but before the first block of post-game commercials. Gatorade had two spots in the can—one for the Detroit Red Wings, the other for the Pittsburgh Penguins–that featured big moments from the teams’ 2009 playoff run. Ron MacLean introduced the spot moments after Sydney Crosby, also a “G” athlete, lifted the cup in the air.
A graduate of Wilfred Laurier University, Collis spent five yearsworking on consumer product goods for SC Johnson before joining Pepsi nearly two years ago.
“He pushes us, he challenges us and he doesn’t limit us,” says Harkness, who believes Collis will one day be the president of PepsiCo. Now that’s G.
