Fuel Force
- Brand
- Gatorade
- Year
- 2017
- Objective
- Engagement
- Industry
- Food & Drink
- Mechanic
- Arcade & Action
- Platform
- Social
- Agency
- VML
Objective
Gatorade needed to break through with teenagers on Snapchat, the platform where they lived but where a single snap held attention for under three seconds. Launching during peak summer sports-drink season, the brand wanted a reason to linger past that window and to turn its bottle — a purely physical object — into a doorway to a digital experience.
Solution
You open Snapchat's camera and scan the Snapcode printed on a Gatorade bottle label, and the game loads right there, no app download needed. First you pick one of six world athletes, including Lionel Messi and Serena Williams, each tied to a different sport and a different bottle. Then you're dropped into a side-scrolling battle against invading alien robots, tapping and swiping in time with the beat to land hits and dodge attacks. Miss the timing and the robots get the better of you; stay on rhythm and you push through the level. Since each bottle unlocks a different athlete and playstyle, finishing one run just makes you want to find another bottle and try someone else.
Results
Players averaged four minutes per session, well past the under-3-second average view time for a single Snapchat snap. The game's Snapcode entry point reached scale via 300 million codes printed across Gatorade bottles.
- 1
The player finds a Snapcode printed on a Gatorade bottle label and scans it with the Snapchat camera, which opens the game directly from the bottle with no app store visit and no install.
- 2
The game runs as a web game inside Snapchat, with controls built around the platform's native taps and swipes.
- 3
An intro animation sets the premise: alien robots invading a planet from space.
- 4
The player picks one of six world athletes, including Lionel Messi and Serena Williams, each tied to a specific bottle; the choice sets the sport and the style of play for that run.
- 5
The core loop is a rhythm mechanic: the player taps controls on beat to land the chosen athlete's attacks, clearing waves of alien robots across multiple levels.
- 6
A win triggers an outro scene illustrating the athlete's victory.
- 7
Scanning a different bottle's Snapcode opens a different athlete, sport, and play style, giving players a built-in reason to replay with other bottles.
