Water wars
Friday, 23 May 2008
It's all suddenly gone a bit crazy in the world of "enhanced water" since we launched our Firefly waters.
First, Coke announced they were launching Vitaminwater in the UK "in the summer". They paid $4.1 billion for the brand last year, so that wasn't a surprise.
Then Pepsi raced out and bought V Water for a whopping £10 million (peanuts for Pepsi, but pretty steep for a brand with £1.2m of sales).
And now this week Vitaminwater have appeared all over London. Free bottles in Victoria station. A brightly coloured van driving down our street. The local newsagent has a whole new Vitaminwater section, surrounded by wobblers, shelf strips and every bit of merchandising you could dream up. Wow, these Coke guys know how to sell.
Of course we rushed out and bought one of each.
And it's intriguing to see how they've adapted the drinks for us Brits...
As you probably know, Vitaminwater is huge in the US: you can't miss the big bright bottles with their genius laugh-out-loud copy.
But Coke have introduced a few changes over here.
They've upped the vitamins a lot (the US versions only had about 25% of RDA - these are mostly 100%+). They've found some spring water (rather than purified - Dasani lesson learned.).
First, Coke announced they were launching Vitaminwater in the UK "in the summer". They paid $4.1 billion for the brand last year, so that wasn't a surprise.
Then Pepsi raced out and bought V Water for a whopping £10 million (peanuts for Pepsi, but pretty steep for a brand with £1.2m of sales).
And now this week Vitaminwater have appeared all over London. Free bottles in Victoria station. A brightly coloured van driving down our street. The local newsagent has a whole new Vitaminwater section, surrounded by wobblers, shelf strips and every bit of merchandising you could dream up. Wow, these Coke guys know how to sell.
Of course we rushed out and bought one of each.
And it's intriguing to see how they've adapted the drinks for us Brits...
As you probably know, Vitaminwater is huge in the US: you can't miss the big bright bottles with their genius laugh-out-loud copy.
But Coke have introduced a few changes over here.
They've upped the vitamins a lot (the US versions only had about 25% of RDA - these are mostly 100%+). They've found some spring water (rather than purified - Dasani lesson learned.).
But it looks like they had trouble masking the vitamin tastes, because they've switched from natural "flavors" to artificial flavours; and they've added sugar too.
Odd decision - our friends always tell us that "all natural" and "no added sugar" are pretty key. But I'm sure Coke know their market...
The big disappointment, I'm afraid, is the bottle copy. It reads like it's been written by a marketing intern. If Coke can afford $4.1 billion, surely they can afford a decent copywriter.
(Sorry - I know copywriting is impossibly hard - I want to kill myself whenever I try - but if Glaceau could do it so well, why mess? I mean, the bit about Glastonbury is just desperate.)
My tip to Mr Bickoff: phone Caitlin Moran and offer her $10 million to defect.
(Except then she might stop writing her Times column and I'd have nothing to look forward to on Mondays. Caitlin, don't go.)
Am I allowed to talk about the competition like this? Oh dear.
Odd decision - our friends always tell us that "all natural" and "no added sugar" are pretty key. But I'm sure Coke know their market...
The big disappointment, I'm afraid, is the bottle copy. It reads like it's been written by a marketing intern. If Coke can afford $4.1 billion, surely they can afford a decent copywriter.
(Sorry - I know copywriting is impossibly hard - I want to kill myself whenever I try - but if Glaceau could do it so well, why mess? I mean, the bit about Glastonbury is just desperate.)
My tip to Mr Bickoff: phone Caitlin Moran and offer her $10 million to defect.
(Except then she might stop writing her Times column and I'd have nothing to look forward to on Mondays. Caitlin, don't go.)
Am I allowed to talk about the competition like this? Oh dear.
posted by Harry Briggs at
16:52
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