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Cadbury Bets on Protein to Promote Its New Sports Drink


By STUART ELLIOTT
Published: June 29, 2007

THE competitive — and lucrative — category of sports drinks is getting more crowded as the third-biggest beverage marketer behind Coke and Pepsi introduces a brand to battle Gatorade and Powerade for the hearts and mouths of thirsty athletes and the legions of would-be jocks.
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Ads for Accelerade, a liquid form of a substance long sold in powder form, portray it as an enhancer of endurance.
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Addenda: People (June 29, 2007)

The Americas Beverages division of Cadbury Schweppes is bringing out Accelerade, a liquid version of a product that has been sold for years in powdered form. A campaign that began this week includes new-media elements like a Web site (accelerade.com), podcasts, search-engine marketing and a chat room.

Type “sports drinks” into the search box at google.com and the top of the results page displays a sponsored link — i.e., an ad — for Accelerade, proclaiming the brand the “Next generation of sports drinks.”

For that matter, type “Gatorade.” In that case, the top sponsored link on the right-hand side of the page is for Accelerade.

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The campaign, carrying the assertive theme “Sweat smarter,” seeks to distinguish Accelerade from its rivals by promoting its protein content, which Gatorade and Powerade do not have. The ads declare, “Don’t fade,” an admonition meant to play up the results of tests that the company says show that Accelerade helps endurance.

The ads are being created by the San Francisco office of Y & R Advertising, part of the Young & Rubicam Brands division of the WPP Group. Y & R San Francisco also creates campaigns for soft drinks the division sells, like Dr Pepper and 7Up.

The campaign has a budget estimated at $50 million to $100 million, making this what the beverages division calls its largest introduction to date.

The hefty budget reflects that perspiring Americans gulp almost a billion cases of sports drinks a year, according to the trade publication Beverage Digest. Although that is only a tenth of the annual case sales of carbonated soft drinks, Beverage Digest estimates, sales of sports drinks grew 12.7 percent last year from 2005 — while soda sales declined 0.6 percent.

“It’s an important category for a North American beverage company to be in,” said John D. Sicher Jr., editor and publisher at Beverage Digest. He said he was surprised that Cadbury Schweppes “had not taken a shot at this category, which is so big and growing so strongly.”

That said, Mr. Sicher cautioned that executives at Cadbury Schweppes “have their work cut out for them” because of the domination of Gatorade, which PepsiCo has owned since 2001.

“Competing with Gatorade is not child’s play,” Mr. Sicher said. “It’s a powerful, well-marketed brand.”

Gatorade has about 81 percent of the sports drink market, a hegemony seen in few consumer-product categories. Powerade, sold by the Coca-Cola Company, has around 18 percent. The rest goes to brands like All Sport, which PepsiCo marketed before it acquired Gatorade.

Does Gatorade’s control of the category daunt Cadbury Schweppes or Y & R San Francisco? Executives at both, not surprisingly, say they are psyched for the race.

The size of the introductory ad budget “is indicative of the confidence” the company has, said Jason Ash, vice president and general manager for Accelerade at Cadbury Schweppes Americas Beverages in Plano, Tex.

The brand’s selling point as the “first protein-enhanced sports drink moves the game on significantly,” Mr. Ash said.

“Athletes are always looking for an edge,” he said, “and also people mowing the lawn.”

Scott Larson, executive vice president and executive creative director at Y & R San Francisco, said it was “a lot of fun” trying to “differentiate Accelerade from the big guys.”

The target audience is “people who are concerned about being competitive, who are into their exercise,” Mr. Larson said, “which is the key to controlling how they feel about themselves.”

“If we’re David versus Goliath,” he added, “we stand for being the real deal.”

The Accelerade ads seek to reinforce the message about endurance by showing a group of athletes engaged in sports like running, biking and swimming. One thrives while the rest fade into nothingness.

(Those with long memories may recall the old Colgate toothpaste commercials that urged, “Don’t let romance fade, fade, fade away.”)

Executives at PepsiCo and Coca-Cola are determined to not fade away before the Accelerade onslaught.

“We take all competition seriously,” said Matt Knott, who recently became vice president for marketing at Gatorade in Chicago, part of the Quaker Tropicana Gatorade unit of PepsiCo, “but we’re confident that Gatorade is the best sports drink.”

As for the Accelerade claim of superior performance related to protein, “We’ve tested protein and dozens of other ingredients that have not met our standards,” Mr. Knott said.

Gatorade is not resting on its lead, he added, but is extending its line. New varieties include Gatorade A.M., with what Mr. Knott called “morning-friendly flavors” like Tropical Mango, and Gatorade Rain, with a taste intended to be lighter than regular Gatorade.

The Gatorade agency is Element 79 Partners in Chicago, part of the Omnicom Group. Mr. Knott became the marketing vice president for Gatorade last week after the chief marketing officer, Cindy Alston, resigned after working on the brand since 1989.

At Coca-Cola in Atlanta, a spokesman, Ray Crockett, said, “We believe our formulation” for Powerade “is great for people when they’re exercising.” The Powerade agency is Wieden & Kennedy in Portland, Ore.

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Coca-Cola announced last week that it would shift the management duties for Powerade to Glacéau, the maker of drinks like Vitaminwater; Coca-Cola agreed to acquire Glacéau this month for $4.1 billion. Vitaminwater products have been distributed by Cadbury Schweppes Beverages America, a relationship that is expected to end as Glacéau becomes part of Coca-Cola.

Mr. Ash at Cadbury Schweppes said the development of Accelerate had been in the works for some time and was unrelated to any change in Vitaminwater’s distribution. An announcement by Cadbury Schweppes in London on June 19 that it was likely to sell the Americas Beverages division “doesn’t have a tangible effect on the course of the launch” of Accelerade, he added.