• by Karl Greenberg , September 12, 2011

Gatorade and the National Basketball Association (NBA) have launched a road show called the "Gatorade NBA Training Center." It's not a physical place, but a series of events intended to attract athletic consumers with a free fitness evaluation with guidance on how to live a healthy lifestyle.

The program, under the NBA Cares Community Caravan platform, launched in L.A. on Saturday and will make stops in Phoenix and Chicago as well this quarter. The league says that at each stop former NBA players will be on hand to talk about their careers and give advice. Brian Taylor was at the event in Los Angeles, and Cedric Ceballos and Kendall Gill will be present in Phoenix and Chicago, respectively.

John Shea, senior director of Gatorade Sports Marketing, stated that the program is aligned with Gatorade's efforts to evolve from hydration provider to sports-performance and nutrition brand.

In 2008, Gatorade began focusing less on one-product general market approaches whose main selling point was dozens of flavors, to athletes and athletic consumers. The company rolled out the tripartite G Series brand comprising "01 Prime," "02 Perform," and "03 Recover" SKUs for before, during and after exercise, respectively. Last year the company added G Series Pro, another three-product line for pro athletes, and in the spring this year Gatorade extended again with a three-product lower-calorie lineup called G Series Fit for adults who work out to get trim.

The campaign for the latter tried something else new for the brand: instead of showing athletes in competition, it showed them working out.

After the "Gatorade NBA Training Center" events, athletes' results from various drills are compiled and evaluated, and athletes then get counsel from NBA clinicians. There is also a Gatorade Training Center Web Site (nba.com/gatoradetrainingcenter).