Gatorade Senior Dir of Consumer Engagement Kenny Mitchell said that the brand's latest ad, which features Serena Williams and "turns into a Nintendo-style video game, seems to be a hit" on Snapchat. About 35% of people who "see the game share it with friends" on the platform. AD AGE's Garett Sloane notes the ad lets the user "play a tennis match" with Serena's character. The game functionality is "part of Snapchat's new interactive ads." The campaign "coincides with the U.S. Open and appears inside ESPN's channel in the Discover section of Snapchat" (ADAGE.com, 9/1).
OLD SOUL: SI.com's Tom Verducci wrote Angels CF Mike Trout "rarely misses a game, plays with abiding joy and hustle and is one of the most accommodating and gracious superstar players with fans," yet relative to other elite athletes, Trout has a "ridiculously small cultural footprint." Verducci: "It is not baseball’s 'marketing' problem. It is our problem. We now live in a world in which we conflate infamy and fame. ... When it comes to national appeal, Trout was born at the wrong time" (SI.com, 8/30).
BIG BEN: Data from Fanatics shows that since becoming the No. 1 pick in the NBA Draft, 76ers F Ben Simmons' merch is the "10th-best seller" among NBAers, and he is the "highest-selling Philadelphia athlete in all sports." Fanatics reports demand for Simmons merchandise helped SixersShop.com see a 76% spike in sales compared with July '15 (PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER, 9/1).
THE BUTLER DID IT: A Kellogg's spokesperson said that the supply of Corn Flakes boxes bearing Bulls F Jimmy Butler's image "has run out." In Chicago, Phil Thompson notes limited quantities of the collectible box were "available for free for a brief time through KelloggsFamilyRewards.com, though Kellogg's hasn't said how many boxes it gave away." Butler "appears on the special 'gold-medal edition' of the cereal" wearing his Rio Games Gold Medal and USA Basketball warmup suit (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 9/1).
