After spending years in the shadows of rival Gatorade, Powerade announced today a new 360-degree marketing campaign featuring NBA star Ja Morant that directly calls out its biggest competitor. The campaign, part of a broader effort to revamp and revitalize Coca-Cola’s isotonic sports drink as it integrates underneath the BODYARMOR business, marks its first athlete partnership in five years.
Titled “What 50% More Means,” the campaign is the largest in Powerade’s history and is centered around the theme of transformation. For Morant, this means going from an unranked high school basketball recruit to All-Star point guard for the Memphis Grizzlies.
For Powerade, it means “putting in the work to reformulate, bringing more functionality to the sports drink category,” according to a press release.
“I see a lot of myself in a brand like POWERADE,” said Morant in the release. “I know what it’s like to be underestimated and seeing the vision this team has for the future – and all the hard work they’re putting in to set themselves apart from the competition – it just feels really authentic for us to team up together and try to shake things up.”
The new $10 million marketing effort comes hot on the heels of Powerade’s unveiling of a new look and upgraded formula. Available in original and Zero Sugar the updated products contain twice as many electrolytes as Gatorade’s Thirst Quencher, with the new labels featuring a callout for “50% more electrolytes.”
The product line is available in 20 oz. and 28 oz. bottles in Mountain Berry, Fruit Punch, Grape, Orange, White Cherry, Lemon-Lime and Strawberry Lemonade flavors.
Created in 1988, Powerade was folded into The Coca-Cola Company’s BodyArmor business unit last summer. The sports drink currently ranks as the third largest sports drink in the U.S. with an 11.8% market share, while Gatorade has a 66.8% share of the category, followed by BodyArmor with 15.2%, according to IRI 52-week data ending January 20, 2023.
Powerade isn’t the only sports drink brand ramping up its marketing efforts: last month, PepsiCo’s Propel tapped Michael B. Jordan “to introduce the brand’s next chapter,” announcing a multi-year partnership, during which Jordan will help provide resources, access and opportunities for fitness in more spaces across the country.
Powerade’s new TV spot features music from Memphis-born artist NLE Choppa and is slated to debut on Tuesday, March 14 in conjunction with NCAA’s March Madness. The brand has been a partner of the March Madness competition since 2010.
“POWERADE is a dynamic brand with a deep history, but it was time to evolve our game,” said BodyArmor CMO Matt Dzamba said in the release. “Partnering with a disruptive game-changer like Ja Morant, who truly embodies the spirit of the brand, will help re-energize POWERADE as we write the next chapter.”