Thirst Quencher

Gatorade took over a sliver of Herald Square earlier this week, giving Macy's-bound tourists a sneak peak at its upcoming Super Bowl commercial starring Derek Jeter. In designing the experiential marketing stunt to promote new low-cal drink G2, Gatorade planners worked with Fleishman-Hillard of Chicago and Fathom Communications to build an urban-looking street that slowly evolves into a baseball field.

Here's the background: G2's commercial features Jeter walking through a city in the midst of a baseball-themed metamorphosis—asserting that an athlete is an athlete 24/7, and even when off the field, athletes are seeing and thinking like athletes.To get this point across visually, Fathom slowly transformed a 30-foot brick wall into a vertical baseball diamond, complete with turf and dirt. A park bench, a car, and a bicycle also received the turf treatment, becoming increasingly covered each day. (The stunt began on Tuesday and ended on Thursday.)

While Gatorade reps didn't want to be quoted for this story, one did tell us that the point of the treatment was to interact with the public, creating intrigue and buzz around the G2 name. Staffers donning G2 parkas and hats handed out samples of the drink while encouraging guests to visit its Web site. Jeter participated as well, stopping by Tuesday night to conduct media interviews in front of the set.

The Herald Square stunt wasn't Gatorade's first attempt to build buzz around its latest drink. In December, the company aired teaser shots of the Super Bowl commercials, showing only the stars' feet and legs, leading audiences to wonder which athletes were promoting the drink. (In addition to Jeter's baseball-themed ad, the Miami Heat's Dwyane Wade stars in a basketball version.)