Building the Saudi launch ecosystem for a global Gatorade Zero platform.
The Brief
Gatorade Zero was launching in the Kingdom under a global platform, “From Zero to ___ Every Goal,” which already came with a master line, a manifesto, and “Superior Hydration” as the brand promise. Strong work, and already done.
What was missing was everything underneath it. Mindspace was briefed to build the in-store experience, the on-ground activations, and the collaborations that would carry the platform across PepsiCo’s Saudi launch, and that’s where I came in.
The Approach
The platform’s core idea is a blank you fill in. Every Saudi has their own version of “every goal,” and the brief said as much; gym rats, amateur athletes and active adults sitting right alongside anyone trying to start a routine, finish one, or just hold onto one. The blank is where the brand turns personal.
So the framework I worked to was simple: turn every shopping aisle, gym corner, beach, padel court and gas station into a place where someone fills in their own blank. The line scales infinitely, so the touchpoints had to as well.
Inside that framework, in-store became the spine, because most of the launch’s commercial weight had to land there. Saudis don’t really encounter a campaign, they encounter shelves, and we’re a shopper marketing agency at our core after all.
In-Store: Turning Stores into Fitness Centers
The in-store thinking treated a shopping trip as the activity it already is. Aisles get walked, trolleys get pushed, and a weekly grocery run is a workout most people don’t realise they’re already doing. So we made it one.
Zero Shopper. At entrance booths, shoppers signed up and walked out with a branded pedometer, so the trip itself became the activity; on the way out, their step counts unlocked scaling rewards. It’s the quietest piece of the system and also the structural one, since every other in-store mechanic plugged into it.
Zero Stops. 2×2 sampling islands across Modern Trade, designed like sports-pitch refreshment decks. Active shoppers walked up, showed their pedometer, and earned a Gatorade Zero sample for every 100 to 200 steps taken, so sampling stopped feeling like a handout and started feeling like a checkpoint.
Activender. A vending machine with a camera and an exercise interface. Visitors registered, picked an exercise and did reps, and the more reps the bigger the reward; 15+ for a discount, 20 for a free Zero, 30 for two, 40 for a giveaway, and at 100 the machine opened wide and refuelled everyone standing in front of it. Built to live in mall plazas, university courtyards and office complexes for limited runs.
The SPOSM family. Across Modern, Traditional and Convenience trade: floor stickers as Zero Trails leading to fridges and Zero Stops, push-pull door stickers, danglers, wobblers, parasite fridges, parking branding, archways, automated-door splits, fridge headers, conveyor branding. Every surface that could carry a tactical line carried one.
Shopathon. The flagship, in proposed partnership with Mall of Arabia. Zero Shopper scaled up to mall level: a branded pedometer, a race number to wear, a Zero floor trail running through the mall, hydration spots along the route, and 15K/10K/5K SAR in mall credits for the top three steppers. Same idea as Zero Shopper, except now the mall becomes the gym and the shopping trip becomes a competition; it reframes mall traffic as a sport.
And Beyond That
Outside in-store, the system kept extending.
The Hydro Check turned sampling into a science play. Using the MX3 Hydration Testing System across pharmacies and pop-ups, Saudis got their actual hydration reading; below the threshold, a three-pack of Gatorade Zero, above it, a Zero of your choice from a parasite fridge. Branded sampling that earned its giveaway through a number on a screen.
Then the active footprints. Zero Bar at gym franchises, Zero Paddle at padel courts, Zero Circuit as a stationary-bike challenge in clubs. Zero Chill Zone at sports-fan venues like the RSL, the Saudi Games, the 6 Kings Slam and the Open Water Swimming World Cup, with energy-tile run-in-place challenges and a branded football obstacle course. Zero Beach in Jeddah, with branded seating, beach running, volleyball and 5×5 football. Zero-to-Hero, a VR exercise game series at cinemas and entertainment venues. Zero Refuel sampling at gas stations via backpack dispensers. And Zero Gear merch across sweatbands, tracksuits, sneakers, gym bags, camelbacks and Fitbits.
OOH ran the same fill-in-the-blank logic across stairs and walkways: “From Zero (first step) to (count) to First in Class” up university stairs, “From Zero (sidewalk start) to (steps taken) to a Beautiful Walk” along pedestrian routes. The line didn’t just sit on billboards, it walked.
What I Did
Activation concepts, the framework that held the in-store ecosystem together, the English contextual messaging, and tactical copy across every touchpoint. Mohamed Dawood handled the Arabic adaptation across the campaign and contributed to several of the activations. The master line (“From Zero to ___ Every Goal”), the manifesto and the “Superior Hydration” positioning all came from upstream, and the Mindspace design and 3D team handled the visual execution.
Why This Work Matters to Me
The platform was already strong when it landed, so the job was never to crack it. The job was to make sure it didn’t arrive in Saudi Arabia feeling imported.
That’s where the contextual messaging mattered most, the scaffolding built around it; the gas-station fill-ins, the padel-court versions, the gaming-night versions, the break-time versions. The launch reaches a guy filling his tank, a couple stopping for snacks, someone halfway through a padel set, and a teenager grinding on a console at 2am, and each of them sees a line written for that exact moment.
Project: Gatorade Zero Saudi Launch (Pitch)
Role: Activations, Framework, Copy, Deck
Agency: Mindspace
Year: 2024
Client: PepsiCo (KSA)