Powerade’s Olympic campaign encourages athletes to press pause

Powerade is vaulting its way into the Paris 2024 Olympics early.

More than 100 days before the start of the games, the brand released a new campaign starring Olympic gymnast Simone Biles. The work is the latest iteration of Powerade’s “Pause is Power” brand platform, which debuted in 2022 and was inspired by Biles’s decision to take a break from competing to focus on her mental health during the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.

“The platform was really focused on continuing to challenge the win-at-all-costs mentality associated with modern sports culture,” Matrona Filippou, president of the global hydration, sports, coffee, and tea category at Powerade parent company Coca-Cola, told Marketing Brew. “It’s not always pushing yourself to the limits that makes you stronger. Sometimes just taking a pause, taking a breath, can actually help you come back stronger and better.”

Press pause: The new addition to the brand platform features an almost two-minute short film called The Vault, which begins with a close-up shot of Biles taking a deep breath while audio clips about her career—and her break from it—play. The camera follows her through a vault in slow-motion as she explains why she “decided to take a pause” and ends with a shot of Biles landing on a mat before jogging off (past a bottle of Powerade, of course) while a young girl looks on.

Shorter cuts of the film are set to run on social media and TV, according to Filippou, and the campaign extends to digital, out-of-home, and broadcast channels as well.

For the new campaign, Powerade has KPIs in place, including attracting new consumers and driving sales, Filippou said, but her primary goal is to get people to feel connected to the campaign, and to The Vault film, which she said “everyday athletes can relate to.” While it can be hard to measure a feeling, Filippou said the brand will also track conversation on social media, as well as sales transactions.

On the ground: Powerade is running the campaign in 30 markets around the world, and since it’s an Olympic partner, the campaign will also incorporate on-site experiential components, limited-time products, and other elements at the games. For instance, Powerade “has been working closely with the Olympics committee to develop a very bespoke Olympic Village experience for athletes” where they can unwind, recover, discuss their mental health, and make use of VR tools, Filippou said.

Powerade will also release a new flavor, Powerade Gold, around the games. The flavor was “specifically designed for the Olympic Games Paris 2024,” according to a press release.

Teamwork makes the dream work: In addition to Biles’s appearance in The Vault, the broader campaign will highlight a handful of other international athletes from Team Powerade who all have comeback stories of their own, Filippou said. They’ll show up in social posts, as well as in-store displays, she said.

The roster includes:

• Chilean Paralympic swimmer Alberto Abarza;
• C.J. Bott of the New Zealand women’s national soccer team;
• Linda Motlhalo of the South African women’s national soccer team (and NWSL team Racing Louisville);
• Lydia Williams of the Australian women’s national soccer team.
• French cyclist Mathilde Gros;
• Dutch cyclist Harrie Lavreysen;
• Rower Emma Twigg of New Zealand;
• And Australian surfer (and World Surf League Women’s World Champion) Tyler Wright.

“All these athletes have shown that taking a pause is not an act of weakness, but rather a powerful undertaking,” Filippou said. “That’s why we are featuring their personal stories of times when they have taken a pause. We want to show that both physical and mental strength play a role, and encourage athletes, whether professional or [not], to recognize how those moments can make us stronger.”