Thomas Gargiulo Competitive by nature, he loves the challenge of building a sports drink brand that stands up to its major competitors.
of Chief Marketing Officer of Coca-Cola Company body armor Brand says he’s always “trying to find a way to get to the top, and that challenge and mindset has always appealed to me.”
Body Armor highlighted this year’s Super Bowl game to introduce the drink to a wider audience. The “Field of Fake” spot features athlete partners Christian McCaffrey, CeeDee Lamb, Joe Burrow, Alex Morgan, Ronald Acuña, and Connor McDavid.
Most recently, the brand ran a campaign with Olivia Culpo and Christian McCaffrey to promote Body Armor Zero Sugar.
“It’s all about providing a unique experience,” Gargiulo says. “We’re all about delivering healthy versions of real ingredients and sports strength. This is just the beginning. We have a long line of innovations coming in the coming years, and we’re very excited.”
Brand Innovators caught up with Gargiulo from his New York office to talk about zero sugar, the Super Bowl, and innovation. This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
Can you talk about the strategy behind your new zero sugar sports drink campaign and who you hope to reach?
One of the biggest challenges we’ve faced in recent years is that zero-carb has become a huge part of the category. We had a light brand, which has always done very well and is a big part of our portfolio. It really goes against the grain of low calories and no added sugar. When we were able to bring this to market, it was really helpful to open up to a whole new consumer and a whole new group of people within a category that we hadn’t talked to before. In terms of the actual marketing plan behind it and how we’ve approached it, the biggest difference between the plan behind Zero Sugar and our competitors is that we use real ingredients and no artificial The fact that we don’t use sweeteners or artificial colors. There is zero to hide behind.
We’re not trying to hide anything in our products. We want to tell consumers straight up that if you’re looking for a Zero product, this is going to be the most honest, transparent and best tasting product. So we decided to run the Zero to Hide campaign. On top of that, there is also an opportunity to appeal to a wider audience than just the core sport. That’s why we enlisted the help of Olivia Culpo and ultimately Christian McCaffrey to tell this story.
What is your involvement in Major League Soccer?
We’re the official sponsor of Major League Soccer, and with the World Cup coming up in a few years, this is a great opportunity to attack while they’re not being taught and really claim ownership. I recognized it. That sport.
The obvious choice was to partner with an up-and-coming facility that has invested incredible resources over the past few years and continues to improve each year. They are building a new facility in Atlanta where sports, medicine and science intersect. This is a great way to not only partner with a great partner in U.S. Soccer, but also help pave the way for Body Armor’s revenue and future innovation.
Can you talk about what you learned from the Super Bowl?
One of the key learnings is that prices are incredibly high and will continue to rise as the event approaches. After all, this is an election year and a very difficult year for any consumer brand. We’re in the middle of all the turmoil going on in the world, and it’s a little difficult to break through and get your message across to consumers. We’ve made a big shift to digital media as a channel of focus: digital media and social media. We also know that home is probably one of the biggest areas of opportunity.
That is the biggest area of opportunity for our brand. When you want to start the year off right. We wanted to start this year with an opportunity to tell our story. We thought about what kind of platform could make this possible. The Super Bowl was the obvious choice. It is the world’s largest platform. No single event of his has ever garnered so much attention. We decided to take a leap of faith and put together some creative art pieces that we’re really proud of, that do a great job of breaking through the clutter, and that truly speak to our differences.
Can you talk about how these past experiences helped shape your current perspective?
I’m very fortunate to have quite a wide range of experience across different categories and different products. One big theme that I see across all the products I’ve worked on is that they are focused on health and wellness. Every product I touch has at least some functional benefit or glimmer of health and wellness in it. The ingredients in the product have benefits to offer to the consumer.
It’s very important to me to tell the story of how our products can help prevent something or help consumers proactively deal with something. When I had the opportunity to join Body Armor, it was a perfect fit.
How do you think about innovation in 2024?
2024 will be the year we essentially aim to catch up. I’ll say it straight up. There are parts of this category that we have not been able to participate in. Many of those parts of the portfolio or parts of the category are some of the fastest growing parts of the category and are driving the growth of the category. Adding Body Armor Zero to our portfolio was a huge win for us.
The performance we are seeing in the market is amazing. Product productivity is more than twice his category average. When we talk about rapid hydration, this is becoming a tried-and-true category in other parts of the world, especially Central and South America. But now, here in the United States, it’s becoming a bigger and bigger part of the mix. And to have a really great brand called Body Armor Flash IV and be able to compete and participate in that category is really great because it’s doing really well in the convenience channel. .
It’s a great opportunity for us to put the brand in different parts of the store and be part of new opportunities like travel and things like that. This is a great opportunity for us to continue to grow our old household and bring our body armor brand to new and different opportunities, offering new and different benefits.
