• by Karlene Lukovitz  @KLmarketdaily, August 27, 2018

The latest extension of Powerade’s “That’s Some Kind of Power” campaign is a limited-time series of physical greeting cards. 

Yes, we’re talking printed, snail-mail cards — with a lightly snarky twist.   

The cards, available in 10 versions on a dedicated page on the brand’s site and in select card stores across the country, play off the campaign’s theme of good-natured sports boasting and “trash talk” by letting players send faux-poignant apologies to friends that they’ve bested on the fields or the courts. The cards feature illustrations of athletes in motion in various sports, including baseball, basketball and football.

Sample message: “So sorry you were unable to tackle me the other day. I hope that one day you can learn to forgive yourself.” 

The free cards are on high-quality paper and use gold-leaf touches. When ordered and personalized through the site, they are mailed at no charge by Powerade. The process includes filling in the recipient’s name and postal address, as well as the sender’s name. When complete, the brand promises that the friend will get his or her card within eight days.

For the launch, paid social influencers received kits to help them create custom videos that demonstrated various ways to apologize to the competition.

The sports drink brand and the campaign’s lead creative agency, Wieden+Kennedy Portland, also created an intro video for the program (below).

“Teens today are so focused on bantering online, so we thought it would be fun to give them a new old-school tool to express themselves, and make sure there’s no hard feelings around the courts,” Alex Ames, Powerade senior manager, integrated marketing, told the Coca-Cola Journey blog. 

“That’s Some Kind of Power” launched with TV spots during March Madness and continued during the FIFA World Cup.