Peyton has spent a lifetime thanking others through handwritten letters. And when he retired, we wanted to make sure he saw the outpouring of thanks from fans online.

So Gatorade created something real to honor Peyton’s career––an outdoor mural composed of actual tweets from fans around the world, but done in a way that’s true to Peyton: handwritten.

We took hundreds of those heartfelt tweets and wrote them onto the mural by hand, then turned the whole thing over to the fans at the 2016 NFL Draft Village to add their own letters to #DearPeyton. Response tweets to the mural were hand-drawn onto the artwork in real time, making it a truly inclusive experience.

We began by scraping the Internet, choosing the most heartfelt, sincere messages to Peyton. Then we turned those digital notes into something real that Peyton could actually see––crafting a handwritten mural.

In the process, we left intentional white space in the mural. So when it was unveiled at the 2016 NFL Draft, fans could write their own #DearPeyton letters directly onto the artwork. Finally, the fans online weren’t forgotten––response tweets to the mural were hand drawn onto the artwork in real time, making it a truly inclusive experience.

In the end, #DearPeyton became a call-to-action, giving fans their chance to say “thank you” to a man who spent his career thanking others.

10.5 million campaign video views

Organic top 5 trend on Twitter

1 million+ Twitter user engagements

Over 3,000 fan signatures in just two days

Voted #1 on Reddit Sports

More than half a billion impressions campaign-wide

More than $38 million in ad value campaign-wi