The planet is heating up and so is the market for hydration. Beyond plain-old water, the category includes enhanced waters, sports drinks, hydration powders and zero-sugar options. Coca-Cola-owned brand BodyArmor plays in each of these spaces, and is looking to break through an increasingly (pardon the pun) saturated market with marketing driven by major partnerships and a shift to digital channels.

“When you look at brand fundamentals, BodyArmor has really high repeat rates: We have very high brand love with the consumers that try us,” said Tom Gargiulo, CMO of BodyArmor Sports Nutrition, the umbrella the BodyArmor and Powerade brands sit under. “But when you look at our household penetration and our awareness, we still have a long ways to go to catch up with some of the other competitors in the space, and even some of the brands within our portfolio.”

Gargiulo joined BodyArmor in March 2023 after stints at Kind, Danone and PepsiCo. During his time at the brand, he's overseen the marketing of a range of product innovations and inked partnerships with the NHL, U.S. Soccer and a range of publishers and influencers. 

“One of the biggest challenges that I had when I joined the organization was trying to shift the marketing mix for the brand to be more aligned with how consumers are consuming media and engaging with brands,” Gargiulo said. “We put a considerable push behind our social media presence in our digital investments — that's been one of our biggest initiatives.”

Marketing Dive spoke with Gargiulo about what partnerships do for the brand, how it tackled artificial intelligence (AI) with its Super Bowl ad and how Coca-Cola boosts its marketing efforts.

The following interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

MARKETING DIVE: BodyArmor this year became the official sports drink partner of the NHL and the official hydration partner of U.S. Soccer, and has been a partner of MLS since 2019. How do those partnerships help the brand's marketing? 

TOM GARGIULO: Obviously, [the leagues] have very broad fan bases that we can tap into and engage with on a whole different level. But the sponsorships also give us credibility: If the world's most elite athletes are drinking our products on the sidelines, it just proves that we're the right choice for people looking for a hydration solution.

The NHL relationship kicked off a couple of months ago, right before the playoffs started, and we've been getting a tremendous amount of exposure both in-game with the digital dashboards and we've been investing quite a bit in terms of media, so getting running spots with [Edmonton Oilers player] Connor McDavid during the games. The response has been tremendous, and more importantly, the athlete response has been tremendous. 

The brand has also inked deals with content publishers. What role does content marketing play?

GARGIULO: Similar to how we look at sports sponsorships, these are properties that are giving us a tremendous amount of reach. Gen Z is consuming media and information completely different than Gen X or the older demographics. Content is king: that's where the majority of these consumers are getting engaged and exposed to brands. 

Finding the partners that align with our values — obviously align with sports, which is core to our DNA — and give us the ability to integrate our products organically and authentically into their content was incredibly important for us. Barstool Sports and Dude Perfect were no-brainers for us; they were just natural fits. They completely embrace the brand and they've done a fantastic job of bringing our brands to life through their content.

BodyArmor recently teamed up with international musician Anitta on a social campaign for the Flash I.V. product. How did you approach that partnership?

GARGIULO: Ultimately, I think athletes are some of the most influential influencers you can find in in the market, but also, lifestyle and music are two spaces that we definitely feel like we have a right to win in. Not everybody is a hardcore athlete or a hardcore sports fan. But everybody loves music and everybody, to a certain extent, has some type of lifestyle influence in their life. That's why we decided to broaden our purview a little bit, and open our eyes to different partners and different opportunities. With a brand like Flash I.V., it has a significant penetration in the Hispanic community, and it was a great opportunity for us to broaden beyond just hardcore sports and go after a pop icon like Anitta.

BodyArmor last month announced plans for LTO bottles with augmented reality functionality that feature athletes across the MLB, NFL and beyond. What is the strategy there?

GARGIULO: One of the key initiatives that we have this year is how do we bring our athletes to life in unique and different ways beyond just social posts or being in our advertising. The obvious choice for us was to start leveraging our bottles. We dipped our toes in the water last year with a limited edition Joe Burrow bottle, then we started to do limited-time offers around key sports moments, like when Ronald Acuña Jr. won the MLB MVP. 

This year, we're kicking it up a notch by launching a number of different collectible bottles. It goes beyond the look of the bottle: We want to make sure that our consumers are able to engage with our brands, and we know gamification is a trend that's alive and well with Gen Z.

BodyArmor ran a regional ad in the Super Bowl that spoke to the buzziest topic in marketing, artificial intelligence. What was the aim with the spot?

GARGIULO: We saw the Super Bowl as a great opportunity for us to bring our brand in front of as many eyeballs as we possibly can. One of the most unique points of difference that BodyArmor has versus the competition is we're a product that stands for real ingredients: We don't use artificial flavors or artificial colors, and a lot of our product is based on nutrient-dense ingredients. We figured this is an opportunity for us to go on the biggest stage in the world and communicate that. AI is obviously a buzzword that is popping up all over the place, it's very much in the mainstream right now, and when you think of real, what's the opposite of real, it's artificial.

With that said, I don't want to make it seem like BodyArmor is anti-AI. It is the future. A lot of different ways of connecting with consumers are going to be opened up through AI. But we just thought it would be a really cool way to tell our story.

Coca-Cola completed its purchase of BodyArmor in 2021. How has being part of the company helped BodyArmor's marketing?

GARGIULO: Coca-Cola is one of the most highly valued trademarks in the world, and we have some of the best marketeers in the world managing that business. We're able to tap into some really fantastic knowledge sharing and best-in-class examples of how to leverage media and relationships with different agencies and partners and how to capitalize on emerging trends. The Coca-Cola organization has opened up the floodgates for a brand like BodyArmor.

As part of the largest activation that we've ever done, we're going to be partnering with Coca-Cola and giving away a bottle of BodyArmor with every purchase of a Coca-Cola 12 pack, and they sell anywhere between 55 and 60 million of those fridge packs a month.

Where does the BodyArmor brand go from here?

GARGIULO: We do feel like there's some tweaking that needs to be done with this brand and some of the brand fundamentals. We're looking at improving some of the visuals and content that we're putting out there, and we're getting better and better at it every day. We're being more aggressive with that marketing mix and trying to find more new and different ways of engaging with our consumers through digital and social activations. I think we're going to be coming out with some really cool stuff over the next 12 to 16 months. It's going to be a very exciting time for this brand.