Suntory has launched a new Lucozade Sports flavour in the UK as it deepens its partnership with heavyweight boxer Anthony Joshua.
The company said it has extended its contract with Joshua, who will contest his unified world heavyweight championship belts in a high-profile fight in New York on 1 June. Joshua has been a brand ambassador for Lucozade since March last year.
Speaking last week, Liam Angel, senior brand manager for Lucozade Sport, declined to give just-drinks exact details of the contract extension with Joshua but said the brand aims to use US the boxer’s social media reach to target new consumers. Joshua has more than 2m Twitter followers as well as one of sport’s biggest Instagram profiles with more than 8.5m followers. Meanwhile, an advert Joshua made with Suntory for Lucozade last year has amassed more than 2m YouTube views on the brand’s channel.
Suntory’s UK-based Lucozade Ribena Suntory (LRS) unit has launched a new Lucozade Sport flavour for its tie-up with Joshua. The apple and raspberry Fruit Punch will be available to UK wholesalers from this week and will be on shelves for the next 12 months. Bottles will carry the slogan ‘Be Humble’, which LRS said is a “key tenet of Joshua’s philosophy”. The flavour will be supported by Lucozade’s biggest marketing activation to date, a GBP5m (US$6.5m) drive that will include a new video currently in production and a “PR stunt”, both featuring Joshua. Details on the activations have yet to be disclosed.
“We know the irresistible one-two punch of the world heavyweight champion and an exciting, refreshing flavour will drive Lucozade Sport sales to new heights this summer,” Angel said.
Joshua, 29, is due to fight Jarrell Miller at New York’s Madison Square Garden in June. The boxer has held three of the four major championships in boxing since defeating Wladimir Klitschko in 2017.
