• by Les Luchter , July 12, 2023

Think hydrating sports drinks, and PepsiCo’s Gatorade and Coca-Cola’s Powerade may come to mind. But Electrolit, from Latin American pharma giant Pisa Pharmaceuticals, is no Johnny-come-lately to the category. In fact, the brand has been around for more than 70 years.

Now, nine years after establishing a U.S. presence, Electrolit has launched a multimillion-dollar summer awareness campaign featuring video and still images of people working up a sweat through vigorous exercise.

Ads are running through Aug. 30 in Los Angeles, New York, Houston, Dallas and 13 other markets where Electrolit “has the greatest presence,” Jake Sloan, senior marketing director of Electrolit USA, tells Marketing Daily.

“We live in a work-hard, play-hard culture, and the essence of the campaign captures how Electrolit slots seamlessly into that lifestyle to help people reach their peaks,” Sloan explains. “We are trying to connect with those who love to perform athletically, work hard and take full advantage of life, because that is who our current consumer is.”

Campaign elements include :60 and :30 spots running on NBC’s network of streaming services. The ads convey the brand’s message to “Move, Sweat, Replenish” by following exercise with a drink of Electrolite.

But, “Our hardest working content will be :06 and :15 cutdowns that will play on YouTube and Instagram,” Sloan reveals.

Other campaign content includes billboards, transit center display and geomobile display -- with “in-action and product still photography” using “the same bold visuals, colors and taglines as the motion counterpart,” Sloan says.

“Our OOH efforts are focused on the larger DMA markets where we are seeing an uplift in demand for the brand and want to keep building on that momentum to attract new Electrolit fans,” he adds.

Electrolit says the ads are designed to support traffic and trial at Electrolit retailers in the 17 markets, including 7-Eleven, Walmart, Kroger and Publix.

The campaign’s overall objective, Sloan says, “is to continue driving brand awareness outside of our already loyal following in key markets. When the campaign wraps, we will be measuring awareness lifts, as well as overall impressions. To supplement this, we will also be sourcing qualitative sentiment responses to the content itself.”

Electrolit’s tagline is “instant hydration,” with Sloan noting that Electrolit “established the ‘rapid hydration’ subcategory of sports drinks.”

“Since doing that, our brand has breathed new life and growth into the Sports Drinks category as a whole,” he continues. “Currently, we are the fourth largest dollar volume contributor to the category. We have consistently posted double-digit growth, year-over-year, in the past five years, which nearly no other top-five sports drinks brand can say.”

The global market for electrolyte drinks, meanwhile, reached $1.4 billion last year and is expected to grow 3.2% annually, to $1.8 billion in 2028, according to Market Data Forecast.

A key reason, according to the researcher: “the rise in physical activities of millennium and generation Z demographics.  Electrolyte drinks are geared toward athletes and adults who exercise regularly, and because the product suggests a healthy lifestyle, the average buyer is a top payer.”