Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola Spiced is to be made a permanent flavor. It has the “iconic” Coca-Cola taste but adds a “burst of refreshing notes from raspberry and spiced flavors”. There will be full and zero sugar variants on US and Canadian shelves later this month. Sue Lynne Cha, vice president of marketing for North America, said choosing Spiced as a permanent variant is “all about being on category trend and responsive to our consumer preferences” and follows the company’s own research that found growing interest among consumers in trying a spiced drink. Raspberry was selected over 5 million times on the Freestyle drink machines in 2022. Spiced will be on sale from February 19 in cans and bottles in most national retailers.
Coca-Cola Europacific Partners has added a new Monster Reserve flavor, Orange Dreamsicle, together with new PMPs for Monster Juiced Mango Loco and Monster Zero Sugar Lewis Hamilton. The Reserve range now has three flavors, including White Pineapple and Watermelon, both of which are worth around £5 million in retail.
Coca-Cola is taking its “Nothing Is More Real” messaging to the Super Bowl. The “Field Of Fake” ad features a robotic voice saying marketing buzzwords over fake sports footage, and then a real voice says “BodyArmor knows nothing in sports should be artificial” before cutting to real footage of celebrity athlete partners. BodyArmor CMO Tom Gargiulo says “‘Real’ covers a number of different things. It covers that our product is real -- it has real sweeteners, flavors, colors, that everything we put in our product is A+ and premium…The other thing, which is incredibly important, is our consumers’ passion for sports.” The ad is a reaction to how AI is permeating our daily lives, including sports. It’s not national in the US but will run across more than 20 key cities for the brand, nationally in Canada, and on dedicated Spanish-language programming on Univision. It will also appear on digital, social and programmatic channels. Gargiulo said the Super Bowl campaign was “one of the first big tactics” to promote the recent launch of BodyArmor Zero Sugar, which will get its own campaign in a month or two.
Other Companies
Swedish hydration brand Bluewater says 2023 was a record year for FloWater Refill Station sales in the North America and was profitable for the second consecutive year. Growth was supported by customer acquisitions that included Amazon, Four Seasons Hotels, Costco Warehouses and Coachella Music Festival. FloWater says it has so far saved over 833 million single-use plastic water bottles from entering oceans, lakes, river and landfills, and this year should see the one billion mark achieved.
In February 2024, Lucozade is launching Blucozade, blue flavors across three of its sub-brands: Lucozade Sport Blue Force, Lucozade Energy Blue Burst and Lucozade Alert Blue. Elise Seibold, marketing director at Suntory Beverage & Food GB&I, said: “Blucozade is the biggest Lucozade launch ever, and the feedback we’ve had when bringing this to consumers and retailers alike has been overwhelmingly positive.” It unites the Sport, Energy and Alert brands for the first time and marks a change in the way Lucozade will be marketed.
Jones Soda says its cannabis brand Mary Jones is now able to operate in Ontario, Canada, and more provinces will follow. Mary Jones will start by releasing THC-infused beverages this quarter; expansion to other cannabis categories will follow and are in development with Tilray Brands. The launch will include its 10MG THC-sodas in flavors like Berry Lemonade, Boot Rear And Col.Ahhhhh, labelled specifically for Canada. Manufacturing and distribution in the country will be handled by Tilray Brands and Green Hedge will support sales and marketing. Mary Jones was the first non-alcoholic CPG brand to move into cannabis, debuting in 2022 in California, where it appears in over 350 dispensaries.
Health-Ade, a gut-health beverage brand known for its kombucha, has released a new brand, SunSip by Health-Ade. It’s a prebiotic soda aimed at consumers looking for alternatives to sugary sodas. There are four flavors: Raspberry Lemonade, Cherry Cola, Strawberry Vanilla and Root Beer. They will be available exclusively at Whole Foods in February before rolling out to other retailers from April 2024 in 11.5oz. cans. Each variant contains 5g of sugar from fruit juice, monk fruit and cane sugar, but no stevia, as well as prebiotics from agave inulin fiber, vitamins and minerals. The Health-Ade brand already sells in 65,000 stores nationally and SunSip is its first non-kombucha product.
Sports nutrition brand Warrior, owned by KBF Enterprises and best known for high protein bars and supplements, has extended into beverages with Protein Water, a fruit-flavored, high-protein, low-calorie drink containing essential vitamins and electrolytes for hydration. Each 500ml bottle has 10g of collagen peptides, fewer than 50m calories and is sugar-free. Launched in two flavors - Tropical and Berry – the new products join a KBF portfolio that has secured listings in Asda and Tesco in the past year.