Tee Off with Strong Brand Strategy and Leave an Easy Putt for Digital

“We’re putting Tiger on the moon,” our Gatorade brand team said.

That was great news for us, the Digital team. With such a strong brand idea at our fingertips, we were in a great position to develop our digital ideas—a gimme putt.

Our strategy team came up with the idea of building a golf game with Tiger Woods in outer space. The game, titled Gatorade Tiger Moonshot, invited players to hit golf balls into incoming objects, blasting them into satisfying explosions across eight planets and saving the galaxy.

I was a rookie writer in the Wild West of interactive advertising (subservient chicken, anyone?) and wrote the best game that I could.

I didn’t think anyone would play, but then, after the game launched, one of our developers showed us that the play count had reached millions. To my shock and delight, some players had replayed over thirty times.

So, I went back to my desk and gave the high scorers a run for their money.

The Moonshot game showed me the power of casual gaming in advertising. It’s easy to brand. Easy to play. And super fun. As a dad, I’ve seen how young the obsession with gaming begins and grows.

So, here are my three takeaways on writing the award-winning Moonshot game and what helped us take a win to the clubhouse.

Draw an Audience With Story

We used classic movie-style teaser language, but in a golf game. “Out there, the asteroids are closing in, unless you stop them.” “1/6 of earth’s gravity…explosive asteroid storms…can you save the moon?”

As a rookie writer, I was obsessed with writing directly to the reader. It was one of the only advertising writing rules that I knew. So, that’s what I focused on.

This is timeless writing advice that’s scientifically proven. ”Research shows that addressing consumers directly creates a sense of personalization, which in turn has a positive impact on how consumers respond to marketing communications (Roberts, 2003, Vesanen, 2007).”

Make Content the Party, Then Send the Invitations

Playing the game in a pop-out meant instantaneous fun. It’s a welcome oasis when consoles take minutes to boot up. We let players try the first level in the banner within seconds, inviting them to “Finish All Eight Levels” on the website.

The in-banner gameplay helped drive millions of website views and got people interested in learning more about the drink. The game gave us a great hook for our CTA, “Click to Play Full Game.”

Leaderboards Are Cool

At the end of the game, players entered their initials to appear on our highest scores leaderboard. It felt like an old arcade. This helped drive replayability—keeping the audience entertained longer.

Even though the leaderboard was a small thing, fans appreciated seeing their initials on the Gatorade website—like receiving an Internet high-five.

Final Thought: Great Executions Fall Out of Great Brand Ideas

When creatives say, “That’s got legs,” we mean that a brand idea can be easily developed into executions across an entire campaign.

It’s why we create so many iterations during the concepting phase: that’s our stress test to see whether an idea “has legs,” or if it’s just a one-off.

The Gatorade Tiger experience felt like an exceptional round of golf. Every shot felt easy, like hitting off a great lie on the fairway. Every approach shot back spun near the hole. And two of our team members even got married! The ultimate success metric, really.

And yeah, we got some advertising awards, too.

Sending Tiger Woods to the moon? That had a million legs.