Barr Soft Drinks is making its biggest ever investment in an energy brand with the launch of a £2m campaign for Rubicon Raw. This investment, which includes sponsorship of this year’s Boardmasters Festival in Newquay, will reach over 11 million energy shoppers.
Launched just 18 months ago, the brand has quickly made an impact on the energy drinks category, becoming the fourth largest flavoured big can energy brand in the market (IRI) and selling over 11 million cans, according to AG Barr sales data.
“Rubicon Raw has had a phenomenal first year, establishing itself as an important part of the category,” says Adrian Troy, marketing director at Barr Soft Drinks. “60% of the brand’s sales have been incremental by recruiting new and lapsed energy consumers (IRI) and current consumers are also buying Rubicon Raw more frequently than other brands in the market.
“We’ve planned an epic year of activity to build on this success where we will engage a broad range of consumers and drive shoppers to fixture to increase category sales.
“We’re really excited to be the official partner of Boardmasters, as the exclusive Energy Drink sponsor. The five-day event in August is packed with live music from global headline acts and world-class surfers, creating an opportunity for us to build Rubicon RAW into the hearts and minds of core energy consumers.”
Rubicon Raw will have huge visibility at Boardmasters Festival and will be the exclusive energy drink poured at all event bars. The sponsorship will be supported with an always-on marketing campaign, to continue driving brand awareness and loyalty with new and existing energy shoppers. This will include impactful POS materials to create in-store theatre and drive retailer sales.
“The energy market is changing, and consumer needs have changed. Energy is no longer the reserve of the traditional young gamers. Innovation has seen the consumer base shift. That’s why Rubicon Raw has been so successful, it meets their needs by delivering on taste. Made with 20% real fruit juice with caffeine from green coffee beans and B-vitamins it provides a big energy hit that is full of flavour,” concludes Troy.
Now worth £1.6bn and growing at +14.2% (IRI), the energy drinks market is the biggest and most profitable drink-now segment in the UK. Big Can Energy is driving that growth at 22% (ibid) with flavoured now accounting for over half of all volume sold (IRI), so it’s important that retailers offer a wide range of flavours to cater to shoppers.
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