Energy drinks trends 2024: Can Red Bull outrun Monster?

Wacky Races is coming to London’s Alexandra Palace on 22 June. Well, at least the closest you can get to the 1960s cult cartoon: The Red Bull Soapbox Race (pictured below). At the event, more than 50 teams of real-life Penelope Pitstops and Dick Dastardlys will be risking life and limb in carts modelled on everything from a student’s bed to a Yorkshire pudding.

The UK energy drinks market is starting to look similarly wacky. The days of brands relying purely on hefty doses of caffeine and vague descriptors such as ‘original’ to flog their drinks seem to be fading. Instead, they’re putting increasingly weird and wonderful ingredients – such as guava, curuba, rose and verbena – in the driving seat.

The strategy appears to be working. While many other categories have slipped into volume decline in a climate of high inflation, energy drink volumes are up 2.4% [NIQ 52 w/e 23 March 2024]. That’s helped values rise 14.3% to sail past the £2bn mark.

So, who’s winning the energy drinks wacky races? And how?

In terms of the top 10 brands, Red Bull is still the market leader. It’s grown sales by 15.7% to £707.2m on volumes up 10.4% [NIQ] However, second-placed Monster is gaining ground with a faster growth rate. It’s up 21.7% to £635.7m on volumes up 11.4%.

Only two other top 10 brands – newcomer Prime Energy and convenience-led brand Boost – have delivered greater volume gains.

Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP) sees a clear reason behind the success of its Monster brand. “Innovation has been key, delivering 46% of energy drinks’ category growth, and of that, 61% has come from Monster [NIQ],” says associate director for portfolio development Helen Kerr. She notes recent innovations such as Monster Juiced Bad Apple and Reserve Orange Dreamsicle.

For Kerr, NPD such as this is crucial to tap growth in energy drinks, which “continue to increase in appeal to more consumers on more occasions throughout the day”.

“Energy drinks continue to increase in appeal to more consumers and on more occasions”

Red Bull is equally conscious of the power of new flavours. “Thanks to ongoing innovation, particularly around flavours, a large part of energy drinks’ growth has come from an influx of new shoppers,” says a spokeswoman for the brand. “Sports and energy drinks are now bought by 27 million shoppers, which is up by four million versus two years ago.”

To that end, Red Bull has added Summer Edition Curuba Elderflower and raspberry, forest fruits and verbena-flavoured Sugar Free Pink Edition this year, to build on the success of 2023 limited release Red Bull Juneberry Summer Edition.

The power of flavours is backed up by Circana analysis of energy drink sales in convenience retailers. It shows flavoured drinks are significantly outperforming original flavoured drinks [52 w/e March 2024].

“Flavours now account for 31% of stimulation energy drinks sales and have shown huge 28% growth year on year, indicating there’s significant thirst for a range of flavour variants to suit all tastes,” says Mark Wilford, category controller at Boost Drinks, which focuses on the convenience market.

Wilford points to the May launch of Boost Sugar Free Tropical Blitz and Apple & Raspberry flavours, as well as a limited-edition Watermelon & Lime Boost Sport variant, as examples of how the brand is adapting.

Bold flavours gain traction

Not only do these flavours help energy brands gain an edge over their direct rivals, but they can also have a more far-reaching impact.

“Sports and energy drinks are consistently challenging traditional categories, such as colas,” says the Red Bull spokeswoman, citing NIQ data.

“There were weeks last year when sports and energy drinks overtook colas to become the number one soft drinks category. This also had an impact on brand performance, with Red Bull replacing Coca-Cola as the number one single-serve soft drink this year.”

The big cola brands aren’t just coasting on autopilot, though. In the past year alone, CCEP has relaunched its Original Taste and Zero Sugar Lemon variant – as well as “future-inspired” 3000 under the Coke Creations innovation platform.

Pepsi, meanwhile, unveiled a mango-flavoured Pepsi Max variant in September 2023 and, in May, a blue cola called Pepsi Electric.

Lucozade pipped Pepsi to the post on the blue front, however. In February, it launched Blucozade – a trio of blue-hued drinks under the Lucozade Sport, Energy and Alert trademarks. “The Blucozade range was the first new launch under the united Lucozade masterbrand platform, so it’s an incredibly important NPD for us strategically,” says Alpesh Mistry, sales director at Suntory Beverage & Food.

“Convenience retailers saw extraordinary demand from shoppers at launch, reporting that entire pallets of the mystery-flavoured blue drinks sold out in days.

“Results across our grocery customers have been unprecedented. We know Blucozade is 60% incremental to the ‘drink now’ category so it’s driving significant growth for retailers [Dunnhumby Main Estate, 6 w/e 21 April 2024]. This success will only increase as we hit the key summer season,” he adds.

It’s good news for Lucozade, which has endured mixed fortunes over the past year. The brand has grown its value by 3% to £370.1m, but volumes are down 6.3% [NIQ].

“Sports and energy drinks are consistently challenging traditional categories like colas”

It faced a pause in production following a tragic incident on 22 April, which resulted in the death of a 50-year-old worker at a production facility in Gloucestershire. Manufacturer Suntory has warned that will result in a “lengthy gap in availability of most Lucozade SKUs”.

There’s no shortage of rivals looking to capitalise on Lucozade’s woes. Boost Juic’d has slipped 16.8% in values to £3.9m on volumes down 22.2% [Circana 52 w/e 20 April 2024]. “Its 500ml dropping from £1.39 to £1 shows energy is about as a competitive part of soft drinks as there is,” says Wilford at Boost. “In response, we have recently invested in price and taken Juic’d back to £1 from £1.09 and we’re confident it will get back to the fast growth it enjoyed when it launched in 2022.”

Challenger power

That rapid response shows just how fast-paced and competitive the market has become. And there are plenty of lesser-known challengers snapping at the heels of the top 10.

“New entrants into energy demonstrate how exciting and dynamic the category is,” says CCEP’s Kerr. “Much of this excitement has been paved by Monster. Monster has moved from challenger brand to an established force within energy over the past two decades with a strong track record for delivering innovation.”

Now, 20 years after Monster’s debut, one new entrant stands out from the crowd. Prime Energy has rocketed past global names such as Rockstar and Mountain Dew to become the category’s sixth-biggest brand from a standing start in 2022.

“Prime’s meteoric rise is a perfect example of just how powerful a personal brand can be”

Seven of the top 20 soft drinks launches in convenience in 2023 belonged to Prime: six were Prime Energy, the other was Prime Hydration Glowberry. Prime Energy Strawberry & Watermelon was the most successful, hitting sales of £1.6m and making it the seventh-biggest soft drink launch.

By comparison, Red Bull Mixed Fruit was the second-biggest launch with sales of £4.4m. Lucozade Energy Lemon was sixth with £1.7m [Britvic Soft Drinks Review 2024].

Boom and bust?

However, there are signs of the Prime bubble bursting. Having hit a peak of £8.8m in the four weeks to 15 July, sales haven’t passed £1m in a four-week period since last October. And in the four weeks ending 23 March 2024, Prime Energy sold just £565k [NIQ].

“Perception can change very quickly,” explains Teddie Levenfiche, co-founder of PerfectTed Healthy Energy. “When brands go too mainstream too quickly, they can quickly find that they’re no longer cool [and] Prime has gone from cool to naff in a year.

“One lesson we’ve learned from Prime is to go deep in terms of distribution… building good relationships with retailers we’re in and turning down approaches from others.”

There are more positive lessons to learn from Prime, too. With more than 60 million YouTube subscribers between them, Prime’s founders Logan Paul and KSI have a powerful fanbase.

“Brands can learn from Prime’s use of digital platforms to engage in with consumers”

Thea Alexander, CEO of innovation consultancy YF, believes Prime will remain “a beacon for the soft drinks market” due to its strong positioning.

“Prime’s meteoric rise is a perfect example of just how powerful a personal brand can be when creating hype around a new business,” says Alexander. “Prime showed agility and innovation by quickly adapting their strategies based on real-time feedback and trends. Their flexibility and responsiveness allowed them to stay relevant with their marketing and continue to excite their audience.

“Brands can take learnings from how Prime used digital platforms to engage in real time with consumers, creating an instant sense of community and loyalty,” she adds.

The more established brands appear to be learning from Prime’s success in communication. AG Barr, for example, will be splashing £3m on an outdoor, sampling and social media campaign across Scotland for Irn-Bru PWR and £3.5m on sampling, sponsorships and on-pack promotions for Rubicon Raw this year.

“This summer is set to be the most disruptive and impactful one yet for Rubicon Raw, with mass sampling set to reach one in five big can energy drinkers, getting cans into shoppers’ hands every single day,” says commercial director Jonathan Kemp.

“This year also sees the return of Rubicon Raw’s sponsorship of Boardmasters, which includes an on-pack promotion giving away festival tickets and £1 PMP cans, launched in April,” Kemp adds.

“Rockstar Energy is also investing heavily in key passion points for our audience – like music”

Britvic is taking a similar tack with Rockstar Energy. Commercial director Ben Parker says Rockstar was rebranded in February to make its range of flavours, which includes Tropical Guava and Watermelon & Kiwi, “easier for shoppers to spot their favourites on shelf”.

In April, the brand also became the official sponsor of Live Nation, operator of the O2 Academies and the Reading, Leeds, Creamfields, Parklife, TRNSMT and Wireless music festivals.

“As well as innovation, Rockstar Energy is also investing heavily in the key passion points for our audience. Music is the number one consumer interest, especially for gen Z – something that everyone can engage and identify with.

“Our partnership with Stormzy in 2023 demonstrated clear brand equity growth for Rockstar Energy, especially in its meaningfulness to consumers.”

It’s not the only energy brand going after music fans. Relentless Energy – which CCEP bills as a “more affordable energy drink with premium credentials, with a close connection with music” – is sponsor of August’s Boomtown Festival. The event promises to bring to life “a parallel world where unique city districts come alive with 12 main stages, over 50 hidden venues, thousands of performers and once secret lineup”.

Secret lineup or not, energy brands certainly won’t shy away from making themselves known at festivals this summer. Fingers crossed, the results could just be music to their ears.