PepsiCo is roping in cricketer Hardik Pandya for its Gatorade sports drink brand, while Reliance, which launched the Campa Cricket drink last week, is planning to advertise extensively on the World Cup by leveraging its own Mumbai Indians team. Coca-Cola, meanwhile, is investing in sponsorship deals for both the Asia Cup and the World Cup.
“With Hardik, we aim to actively engage with the fitness and active lifestyle community, and help them in being rehydrated, replenished and refuelled,” Ankit Agarwal, associate director, hydration & energy at PepsiCo India, told ET. The beverage maker’s other drinks such as Pepsi, Mountain Dew, Sting and Slice are endorsed by actors Ranveer Singh, Hrithik Roshan, Akshay Kumar and Kiara Advani.
Reliance Consumer Products, which is expanding its beverage portfolio to the cricket-themed lemon-flavoured sports-based carbonated drink, Campa Cricket, will leverage its existing associations with the IPL Mumbai Indians team ahead of the ICC Men’s World Cup being hosted by India, executives aware of its plans said.
Campa Cricket will compete directly with existing fizzy lemon drinks as well as PepsiCo’s Gatorade and recently launched Limca Sportz by Coca-Cola. Campa Cricket, endorsed by newcomer cricketer Ishan Kishan, is now promoting the brand on its Instagram handle tying in with sport. A Reliance Consumer spokesperson said at the time of announcing the launch: “Campa Cricket aims to establish a strong connection between the Campa brand and cricket.” Reliance, which started to scale up Campa in retail channels earlier this year, is taking the brand national now.Coca-Cola is investing in sponsorship deals with cricket broadcaster Disney Star for the Asia Cup and the World Cup, and is also the exclusive non-alcoholic beverage partner of the ICC for the World Cup. Arnab Roy, vice-president, marketing, Coca-Cola India and Southwest Asia, said: “We believe the ICC Cricket World Cup is the biggest sporting event for the country. Partnership with the ICC provides us with a great opportunity to bring together customers, consumers, brands and cricket.” Coca-Cola’s Thums Up is the official beverage partner and Limca Sportz is the official sports drink for the World Cup.The company said it will use its global reach to activate online and offline promotions across platforms and has started to air a new campaign for Thums Up featuring commentator Harsha Bhogle.
The beverage makers have lined up launches, sponsorship deals, new endorsements, higher spends with new campaigns and consumer promotions, and are stepping up the distribution reach, for the September-December months, coinciding with the ongoing Asia Cup, the World Cup and Australia’s tour of India.
The spends are being pushed after the domestic soft drinks category was severely impacted in the crucial April-June quarter this summer – a season that usually contributes more than half the annual soft drinks sales.
For the quarter, Coca-Cola said its India business had been “unfavourably impacted” by unseasonable rains and cooler temperatures.
