Gatorade: Fragmental Medal
Gatorade tasked Tombras with addressing the high dropout rate at the El Cruce ultramarathon. The client needed a way to support runners mentally during the grueling three-day race, moving beyond simple hydration to actively sustain motivation. The goal was to increase the finish rate and solidify Gatorade's role as an essential performance partner for elite endurance athletes facing extreme physical and mental exhaustion.
Creative Idea
The finisher medal was split into pieces, rewarding runners for every stage completed.
Gatorade transformed the finisher medal into a modular, multi-part puzzle awarded after each stage of a 100km ultramarathon, providing runners with tangible psychological milestones that sustained their motivation and reduced dropout rates during the grueling three-day race.
Engineering Motivation Through Modular Design
From Hydration to Psychological Architecture
The campaign shifted the brand's role from a passive supplier of electrolytes to an active participant in the athlete's mental journey. By breaking the 100km race into three distinct stages, the team utilized the psychological principle of "small wins" to combat the exhaustion that typically leads to high dropout rates. This design-led intervention turned the medal into a tangible, physical representation of resilience, ensuring that runners felt a sense of accomplishment at every checkpoint rather than waiting until the final finish line.
Precision Craft and Cross-Border Logistics
The physical production of the medal required significant engineering to ensure the fragments clicked together seamlessly under the harsh conditions of the South American trail. The project was a collaborative effort between the Tombras hub in Buenos Aires and leadership in New York, requiring tight coordination to align the physical product design with the event's logistical reality. The production was brought to life by Retina, with the atmospheric soundscape and music score composed by Titan Música, which helped amplify the emotional weight of the final assembly.
A New Record for Endurance
The impact on the race was immediate and measurable. By providing this persistent motivational feedback loop, the campaign achieved a 99.2% finish rate, the lowest dropout rate in the history of El Cruce. This success solidified Gatorade as the #1 most-mentioned brand throughout the event, proving that integrating product design directly into the sporting experience can solve behavioral challenges that traditional advertising cannot reach. The campaign successfully transformed a standard piece of event "swag" into a critical tool for athletic performance.
Creative Strategy Deconstructed
Company
As the leading hydration partner for athletes, Gatorade possessed the authority to influence performance and endurance beyond just electrolyte recovery.
Category
Sports brands typically offer passive sponsorship, providing hydration stations and generic finisher medals at the end of endurance events.
Customer
Runners in extreme, multi-day races faced intense psychological fatigue, often feeling overwhelmed by the daunting distance and wanting to quit.
Culture
The rise of extreme endurance sports and the growing focus on mental health and performance psychology made this intervention highly relevant.
Company
As the leading hydration partner for athletes, Gatorade possessed the authority to influence performance and endurance beyond just electrolyte recovery.
Category
Sports brands typically offer passive sponsorship, providing hydration stations and generic finisher medals at the end of endurance events.
Strategy:
Solve psychological barriers by integrating functional rewards directly into the user's performance journey.
Customer
Runners in extreme, multi-day races faced intense psychological fatigue, often feeling overwhelmed by the daunting distance and wanting to quit.
Culture
The rise of extreme endurance sports and the growing focus on mental health and performance psychology made this intervention highly relevant.
Strategy:
Solve psychological barriers by integrating functional rewards directly into the user's performance journey.
Results
Gatorade achieved impressive engagement and behavioral impact: 99.2% of the runners reached the finish line, resulting in the lowest dropout rate in El Cruce history. Additionally, Gatorade became the #1 mentioned brand of the event.
99.2%
runners reached the finish line
Lowest
dropout rate in El Cruce history
#1
mentioned brand of the event
Strategy Technique
Build an Utility, Not an Ad
Gatorade solved the mental barrier of endurance racing by creating a physical tool that directly assisted runners in managing their psychological stamina. The brand became a functional component of the athlete's success rather than just a sponsor.
Explore Technique
Creative Technique
Turn Message into Product
The campaign physically manifested the concept of milestone-based motivation by turning the medal itself into a functional, multi-part tool. This transformed a passive reward into an active, piece-by-piece psychological support system.
Explore Technique
Craft Breakdown
This campaign excels through bespoke physical design and behavioral psychology, turning a traditional sports award into a functional motivational tool.
Designing a physical multi-part medal distributed stage-by-stage actively altered participant psychology and directly reduced race dropout rates.
The complex industrial crafting and magnetic locking system of the interlocking medal pieces seamlessly balanced aesthetic beauty with structural utility.
