• The New York Times, Friday, June 29, 2007 11:30 AM

Cadbury Schweppes is supporting the launch of a liquid version of Accelerade with a campaigns distinguish the sports drink from its rivals by promoting its protein content. The campaign -- which includes new-media elements like a Web site (accelerade.com), podcasts, search-engine marketing and a chat room--carries the assertive theme "Sweat smarter."

The campaign has a hefty budget, estimated at $50 million to $100 million, reflecting the fact that perspiring Americans gulp almost 1 billion cases of sports drinks a year, according to Beverage Digest. Although that is only one-tenth of the annual case sales of carbonated soft drinks, sales of sports drinks grew 12.7% last year from 2005, while soda sales declined 0.6%.

Gatorade has about 81% of the sports drink market, a hegemony seen in few consumer-product categories. Powerade, sold by the Coca-Cola Company, has around 18%. The rest goes to brands like All Sport, which PepsiCo marketed before it acquired Gatorade.

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