2026 Winner

CASE SUMMARY

In 2023, Gatorade Canada became an inaugural sponsor of the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL).

For two years, the sponsorship largely hinged on a partnership and media package that guaranteed presence in games. But as the 2025/26 season approached, brands in every category seemed to have gotten into the game. In a bid to stand out, differentiate, and own its position as a leader, Gatorade asked a game-changing question: how does the brand go beyond investing in sponsorship visibility to instead make a real investment in athlete equality?

Only 6% of global sports science research focuses on female physiology – meaning that, for decades, female athletes have been training, hydrating, and recovering based on data that is designed for men’s bodies, not their own.

“Made By It”: Backing the grit, sweat, and perseverance that built the PWHL with a game-changing investment in sports science.

Heading into the 2025/2026 season, Gatorade Canada and Gatorade Sports Science Institute (GSSI) partnered with the PWHL to orchestrate the largest-ever single sweat-testing initiative in hockey history.

In only a few short weeks, 100 players were tested across all four of Canada’s PWHL teams. Results were shared with players and their teams, providing personalized hydration data and unique insights into female hockey athletes’ specific performance needs.

The entire effort, which was timed to hit mounting pre-season anticipation, was supported by PR and
social media posts giving fans a glimpse behind the scenes.

Then, during the first week of the PWHL regular season, Gatorade launched a 360 campaign that turned the brand’s iconic "Is It In You?" platform into a tribute to the sweat, grit, and decades of unpaid sacrifice that built professional women's hockey into a league.

In broadcast, OLV, and social media, an anthemic 30-second film brought together two of the league’s biggest stars, Marie-Philip Poulin (2025 MVP of the Year) and Sarah Fillier (2025 Rookie of the Year). In parallel, Gatorade took over rink boards and bench wraps in all four Canadian PWHL arenas, iconic OOH went live in each city, exclusive “Made By It” merch was sent to PWHL-related influencers, and the brand released a limited run of custom “Made By It” Gx bottles on its online store.

Strategic planning made a significant contribution to this game-changing campaign. First, strategy set the tone from the jump. In pre-brief conversations, the team built the case for the brand team to include PWHL in their annual hockey creative brief, which historically treated PWHL as a channel, not a cornerstone worthy of custom creative.

Second, and most important, strategic planning worked in lockstep with creative to shape a uniquely ownable brand action that not only built from Gatorade’s sport science DNA but also materially backed female athletes.

The campaign, which treated closing the research gap as a foundation not a footnote, delivered a big win for Gatorade and future generations of female athletes. 100 PWHL players sweat tested by GSSI, hundreds of additional female athletes on track to be tested by GSSI, globally, across sports, regions, and demographics. “Made By It” received 100% positive sentiment across editorial pickup; and 127 million earned impressions.

Credits

Anomaly
Dave Douglass, Executive Creative Director / Partner
Neil Blewett, Group Creative Director
Brena Johnson, Associate Creative Director
Sam Ramsey, Associate Creative Director
Shawn Lambino, Head of Design
Zoe Kim, Design Director
Candace Borland, CEO
Matt Holton, Managing Director
Danielle Bablich, Business Director
Laura Guerrero, Account Supervisor
Sarah Loo, Account Director
Mahmoud El Kattan, Head of Brand Strategy
Kira Montgomery, Head of Comms Strategy
Michael Vassos, Senior Comms Strategist
Marie-Pierre Toure, Head of Production
Martina Esguerra, Senior Producer
Danielle Zhang, OOH Producer
Matthew Stasoff, Group Director, Social Strategy & Creative
Editing Company, Daydream Edit
Editor, Red Barbaza
Transfer Company, Fort York VFX
Sound Design Company, Grayson Music
Executive Producer/ Director of Licensing, Kelly McCluskey
Sound Engineer, Tyson Kuteyi
Visual Effects Company, Fort York VFX

Gatorade Canada
Reid Black, Senior Director of Marketing
Senior Marketing Manager, Kush Ghandi
Assistant Marketing Manager, Rachel Gladwish
PR Agency, Golin
Media Agency, OMD
Grassroots Agency, Treetop Marketing