PRIME

Acknowledging the old timers we admittedly are, we won’t even pretend to understand all of the factors that create a media movement like PRIME, but we do know that there’s been an incredibly well-coordinated mix of execution and earned media that has allowed this brand to be as disruptive in the hydration and energy categories as Van Halen opening for Black Sabbath upended the heavy metal game. They’ve activated a new set of fans, getting them early, making it the must-have beverage for the cool kid at the soccer field. 

What they’ve done right: on the marketing side, they’ve leveraged a pair of international media stars to create a youth movement on both sides of the Atlantic, have those stars continually promote the brand to a tween- and teen-age audience, spend on high-profile partnership targets that match that demographic (Arsenal, FC Barcelona, NASCAR, UFC, the LA Dodgers). On the manufacturing side, Congo Brands has kept product flowing – after a short scarcity issue that had shop owners acting like they were selling a Sony PS5.

Roll in a little bit of pearl-clutching in the U.S. Senate to give the new energy drink SKUs some extra heat, and in two years the brand has reached more than a half-billion at retail, with a run rate expanding like a whale’s maw in a krill colony. In other words, it sounds like it’s PRIME Time indeed.