WD Partners Garners "Design of the Times" Platinum From Path to Purchase Institute for Gatorade In-Store Marketing

COLUMBUS, Ohio, Nov. 2, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- WD Partners, IDL Worldwide, and Universal Display & Fixtures have won a Platinum award in the annual Path to Purchase Institute's "Design of the Times" competition. The award was presented for the Gatorade G Series Pro's eye-catching and informational in-store marketing. The Path to Purchase Institute is a global industry association that fosters best practices in marketing efforts that influence purchase decisions at retail.

"The G Series Pro 'Team Sports' merchandising set reaches Gatorade's athlete customers and their influencers such as coaches and trainers," said Andrew Elliot, Vice President, WD Partners. "The work is a great example of how brand strategy can be blended with effective design and execution, and we're honored to receive this recognition."

While everyone knows the Gatorade brand, the new G Series Pro product line was developed for serious athletes. The Dick's "Team Sports" fixture is a massive 6'x8', using bold black and white graphics with photos of real athletes. Designers also leveraged Gatorade's iconic "sidelines equipment." The fixture explains the G Series Pro's features and benefits with easy to understand 1-2-3 "occasion" messaging, chest-height informational flipbooks and shelf strips.

"The 'scientific' approach to enhancing performance is a great way to engage the serious athlete," said Elliot. "We found that pairing information with products and equipment drives trial use."

The "Team Sports" merchandizing program is in 480 Dick's Sporting Goods stores across the country, and has significantly exceeded expected retail sales per square foot.

A panel of brand marketers, retailers, and agencies judged more than 100 entries. Entrants were evaluated upon their in-store marketing innovation and their results. "These companies are changing the face of retail and how brands communicate effectively with consumers at retail," said Peter Hoyt, CEO of The Path to Purchase Institute.

For more information, please visit:  
http://www.wdpartners.com/more/gatorade-dotaward2011.php

WD Partners is a customer experience expert for global food and retail brands. The company provides the strategy, design, implementation, architecture and engineering services that retailers need to innovate at the store level. For more information, please visit www.wdpartners.com.

IDL Worldwide is a full service global retail execution firm which provides consultancy, design, engineering, print, fabrication, project management, fulfillment, and installation for brands and retailers. We help our customers improve their methods of selling their product and enhance the customer experience at retail.

Universal Display & Fixtures designs, develops, and produces merchandising solutions for retail and consumer product companies. They have an award winning development team and production facilities in Lewisville, TX and China.  Their world class distribution center is located in Coppell, TX.  Universal is a privately owned, certified Minority Business Enterprise. Universal has been a strategic merchandising partner with PepsiCo for over 40 years.

SOURCE WD Partners