UPDATE: Might 8, 2024: Sprite has launched a 30-second spot that includes Sha’Carri Richardson as she says “Nah” to obeying scorching takes, pictures and strain, however says sure to obeying her mama, her huge mama and her thirst.
Sprite right now (April 18) revived its iconic “Obey Your Thirst” tagline with a marketing campaign that pays homage to the unique 1994 effort that established the model’s ethos. The Coca-Cola model’s newest marketing campaign enlists NBA participant Anthony Edwards and sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson — the model’s first lady athlete companion — and spans TV spots, packaging, sports activities partnerships and a digital expertise.
Within the lead spot, Minnesota Timberwolves star Edwards is seen ingesting Sprite and making a dunk. When an onlooker — shocked at Edwards’ beverage alternative — sips Sprite and tries to make the identical dunk, he clangs it into the rim and falls dramatically to the court docket.
“You need to hoop like Anthony Edwards? Observe. You desire a refreshing drink? Obey your thirst,” NBA Corridor of Famer Grant Hill says in voiceover.
The brand new spot immediately references the unique 1994 marketing campaign, which starred Hill in the identical position as Edwards. Three a long time on, calling again to the primary “Obey Your Thirst” spot — a part of a platform that was supplanted by the “Thirst for Yours” marketing campaign in 2019 — is the newest step in Sprite’s “journey” to succeed in a brand new technology of younger shoppers, in keeping with Brian Rogers, senior director of brand name advertising and marketing for Sprite.
“Strategically, the viewers that we’ve been after since 1994 has been experiencing an increasing number of pressures,” the manager stated. “You concentrate on the youth of right now, and the quantity of strain that they are beneath — cultural strain, strain to be like everybody else — we felt like ‘Obey Your Thirst’ and what it means was proper for this second for that client.”
The marketing campaign comes as Sprite seems to be to take care of its place in a crowded delicate drink market, which has seen elevated advertising and marketing exercise from PepsiCo’s lemon-lime Starry beverage and better-for-you entrants like Olipop. Starry, which changed Sierra Mist within the PepsiCo lineup final yr, has made a major advert push, together with a Tremendous Bowl business this yr, round each hip-hop and basketball — two areas which have traditionally been central to Sprite’s “Obey Your Thirst” advertising and marketing.
“There’ll at all times be rivals to enter this house,” Rogers stated of the market. “I feel we’ve a protracted heritage of talking to this particular viewers with what it means to be Sprite. ‘Obey your Thirst’ means loads of issues to millennials, and we’ve a possibility to reintroduce it to a brand new technology of Sprite drinkers.”
Together with the Edwards spot, the marketing campaign features a forthcoming spot starring world’s-fastest-woman Richardson, a presenting sponsorship for the Timberwolves’ first two playoff rounds and limited-edition packaging that features a QR code-powered digital expertise, “Obey Days,” that rounds out the multichannel effort.
“’Obey Days’ is all about encouraging shoppers to ‘Obey Your Thirst,’” Rogers defined. “So when you scan the QR code, you get the chance to register and each Thursday you’ll log in and see the message from A.E. or from somebody related to Sprite about methods to … be your self, be genuine in your life in each manner.”
