It’s been nearly a decade since National Beverage Corp.’s LaCroix ignited a consumer craze around sparkling water, spurring a rush of investments within the category from larger beverage rivals. Bubly, PepsiCo’s answer to LaCroix that launched in 2018, has hung around where others floundred, and now aims to shake up a sector that has seen a few of its excitement wane.
The brand on March 25 will roll out a new product lineup that caters to consumers who view current sparkling water offerings as too steep a trade-off from the sweetness of soda — and a bit boring to boot. Bubly Burst, which boasts zero added sugars and 10 calories or less depending on the flavour, is available in six variants. Names like peach mango, tropical punch and triple berry can be found in tall, 16.9-ounce single-serve bottles made from recycled plastic material referred to as PET.
The brand extension lands with a bouncy ad campaign running on social, digital, TV and out-of-home that unites what executives called the Bubly family. Burst and the core sparkling water line come together in energetic creative that makes the product the lead character. Agency ODD developed the TV spot while Direct Focus handled production duties.
PepsiCo executives view Bubly as a potentially major growth driver as shoppers seek healthier purchases without sacrificing a way of indulgence.
“I firmly imagine Bubly could possibly be our next billion-dollar brand if we actually get after it in the precise way,” said Todd Kaplan, CMO of Pepsi and sparkling water, in an interview. “Bubly Burst is a fantastic tool to achieve this and really expand the brand.”
Kaplan was chargeable for getting Bubly off the bottom in his prior role overseeing marketing for PepsiCo’s water portfolio. Bubly, which was projected to rake in $100 million in its first yr available on the market, was introduced across the 2018 Oscars ceremony and later ran a campaign for the Super Bowl punning on a similarity with crooner Michael Bublé’s name. Kaplan eventually shifted to Pepsi, which was handed PepsiCo’s sparkling water duties in 2022. Bubly today leads the sparkling water pack when it comes to each brand awareness and preference, according to Kantar’s 2023 Brand Mind Share report.
But consumer habits proceed to shift, with more people looking for what Kaplan described as “subtly sweetened” drinks. An internal evaluation by the brand estimated about 20 million consumers now prefer a sweetened sparkling water beverage alternative, hence the event of Burst, which incorporates 1% real fruit juice.
“The people who find themselves in search of this, truthfully, it doesn’t just cut one demographic or cohort,” said Kaplan. “They’re not willing to make the trade-off from a soda all the best way down to a sparkling water. This gets a bit of half-step closer.”
All within the family
Kaplan attributed Bubly’s success to a personality that differs from what the chief perceives as staid sparkling water competitors with “private-label type executions.” Bubly packaging emphasizes shiny colours and smiley face iconography meant to encourage the bubbly feeling referenced within the product’s name.
That sunny disposition is reinforced through the brand’s social media presence, which shows Bubly cans interacting in dollhouse-like setups. A Bubly campaign from January centered on a novelty button that used LTE technology to deliver Bubly to consumers abstaining from alcohol for the month as a part of Dry January.
Bubly Burst looks to firm up a positioning around fun without rewriting the marketing playbook. Caps are topped with sayings like “thirsty work” while the bottles are printed with light-hearted copy (the watermelon lime flavor has a text bubble reading “your partner in lime.”) Pineapple tangerine and cherry lemonade round out the lineup.
“It’s the identical visual identity. We didn’t want to launch a new brand, we didn’t want to buy a brand,” said Kaplan. “It’s a bit of bit more of an elevated, more loud version of Bubly.”
Fine-tuning innovation
PepsiCo has been more lively in launching brands and refreshing old ones to stay relevant with choosy consumer groups like Gen Z. The company last yr bowed Starry, a lemon-lime alternative for flagging Sierra Mist. Starry ran its first Super Bowl campaign in February with a industrial featuring on-the-rise rapper Ice Spice. Such efforts are the results of stronger alignment between PepsiCo’s research and development, product and marketing teams, according to Kaplan.
“When we created and launched Bubly … that was a really new muscle for us, as PepsiCo: to create brands, launch brands from inside,” said Kaplan. “Since then, we’ve gotten that muscle fine-tuned.”
An even bigger concentrate on innovation comes as chief rival Coca-Cola also ramps up new releases, reigniting the Cola Wars back-and-forth that has long underpinned the trajectories of the 2 corporations. Coke in February added the primary everlasting addition to its soda portfolio in three years with Coca-Cola Spiced, a raspberry-flavored cola. Coke and Pepsi are each dedicating more marketing resources to zero-sugar and better-for-you beverages as shoppers steer away from full-sugar options, with Bubly Burst fitting neatly into that strategy.
“A number of our growth goes to come from new spaces which might be emerging within the beverage space, in addition to going a bit deeper within the spaces where we do play,” said Kaplan.
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