In 2023, SPCSHP was tasked with launching Gatorade’s new athletic energy drink, Fast Twitch, during the busiest media week of the year: Super Bowl. Lacking a big budget – and a big game commercial –, we had to find a clever approach that would catch fire.
We created a viral moment by tapping NFL icon DK Metcalf, someone known for his high-energy personality and incredible physical prowess. We captured the Seattle Seahawks star receiver making a gravity-defying catch, creating a social media moment that got sports fans fired up. Across social media, people began debating whether the Fast Twitch-powered catch was real or an editing trick, with the conversation coalescing to the point that the NFL weighed in and formally requested a drug test from DK.
Our team designed the content to feel organic rather than brand-sponsored and leveraged DK’s natural abilities seamlessly. The video made audiences reevaluate the capabilities of the human body – and see the power of the new Fast Twitch energy drink.
We achieved over 315 million views, 15.8 million engagements, 4.2 million owned impressions, and 200 earned media placements on social. That’s not even counting the numerous traditional broadcast networks who jumped into our conversation live on air. In a time usually dominated by in-game Super Bowl spots, we got the world fired up about Fast Twitch.
Speculation and sports culture go hand in hand, especially with football. At-home pundits and keyboard warriors theorize endlessly around players' next moves, performances, and capabilities. Some people even go so far as to claim the NFL games themselves are scripted. We saw this hype and buzz as our way in — and capitalized on one specific attribute to give plausibility to the stunt: DK’s insane physicality. With this in mind, we edited the jump to be just high enough to toe the line of believability and get those at-home pundits fired up.
With believability at the heart of our execution, the craft of the video played a key role. We honed in on an intentionally low-fi, casual feeling. We sought to emulate spur-of-the-moment films captured by random bystanders to increase authenticity, and shot on iPhone to achieve that realistic effect we know audiences crave on social.
Due to his famously impressive athleticism and the socially native production, the video hit the target – and inspired a viral debate.
We ignited an all out firestorm with the DK video, as fans debated whether the jump was possible or if it was fake. Users meme-fied the content, gave their best hot takes, created videos painstakingly breaking down the physics and velocity of the jump, examined it pixel by pixel for retouching and video editing, and remixed it into TikTok reactions. The video trended on X for two days straight. The NFL even requested that DK submit to a drug test after the video went live, signaling that they, too, believed the jump was real. As a video that was only ever intended to be shared on Fast Twitch’s social profile, the sheer amount of accounts like House of Highlights and Bleacher Report that organically shared out the content helped it leap past our expectations. And with features in ESPN, Fox Sports and TMZ, we had everyone talking. Even now, a year later, the video is still resurfacing on various social media platforms, stirring debate, and bringing attention to Fast Twitch.
