Lucozade FitWater ad

Lucozade Sport has kicked off a £3.5m push for its functional FitWater, featuring heavyweight boxing champion and brand ambassador Anthony Joshua.

Launched today (12 March), the cross-channel campaign incorporated outdoor advertising “designed to attract consumers to the still water segment and appeal to the growing demand for functional drinks to enjoy as part of an active lifestyle”, said brand owner Lucozade Ribena Suntory.

The supplier unveiled FitWater last summer, marking Lucozade Sport’s first move into the bottled water category. Hailed by the brand as its “most ambitious” NPD in seven years, the functional drink contains four “key” electrolytes: sodium, chloride “to help replenish what you lose in sweat”, magnesium to reduce fatigue, and calcium to aid muscle function. It rolled out in August, backed by a £3m spend.

The latest marketing activity was designed to “grab the attention of existing sports drink consumers, while also appealing to a new audience with a drink perfect for the exercise occasion but with no sugar or calories” said Lucy Grogut, Lucozade Sport brand director at LSR.

She highlighted “the huge potential opportunity for retailers to grow their sales in this segment, with water accounting for 14% share of total value sales of Great Britain’s soft drinks”.

Take-home sales of plain still water are up 1.3% in value across the mults to £137.1m, while volumes have risen 6.3% [Kantar Worldpanel 52 w/e 5 November 2017].