The soft drinks category was last looked at in detail by the Promotrack analysis in the 17 June issue of The Grocer when we looked at the correlation between sponsorship of the World Cup and in-store promotional activity by its sponsors.

The soft drinks top five branded activity chart at that time showed that Coca-Cola accounted for 63%, Pepsi-Cola and Lucozade 13% each, Robinsons 10% and Dr Pepper 7% of the total activity.

Coca-Cola has naturally continued to top this chart with more than 40% of the total activity each week, but the brands vying for the other four positions have been changing issue by issue.

Britvic's J2O has really been the star performer in this category, having increased its activity steadily over the past four issues.

Starting at eighth place four issues ago, the brand moved to fourth place for the past two issues with 12% of the activity and has now moved ahead of Robinsons to secure the second place with 17%.

The J2O promotions this week all favoured the x for y mechanic.

In the four retailers where the brand was promoted in featured space aisles, Asda, Morrisons and Sainsbury's had the same offer of 2 x 425ml for £5.00 with Somerfield having the same mechanic but for the price of £5.25.

The non-promotional price for this product across each of the retailers was different, with the price ranging from £3.14 in Asda to £3.35 in Sainsbury's.

Another brand to move into the soft drinks top five branded chart this issue is Ribena, which recorded activity across three retailers, moving it to take the fourth position above Fanta.

The offers on its Ribena 1-litre product showed Asda again having the best offer with 2 for £2.50 (the non-promotional price was £2.44) while Sainsbury's offer used the buy-one-get-one-free mechanic with a price of £2.69.