Coca-Cola’s Powerade to sponsor The Matrix sequel

Coca-Cola’s sports drink brand Powerade is to sponsor the sequel to hit movie The Matrix in a bid to widen the product’s appeal.

Powerade is to be a global sponsor of the Warner Bros science-fiction film The Matrix Reloaded, a move that will take the brand beyond its usual association with football and athletics.

In the UK, Coca-Cola Great Britain will launch a green-coloured kiwi and watermelon variant, which will carry a Matrix Reloaded label on the packaging and Matrix-style graphics.

A cinema advertising campaign, adapted by Wieden & Kennedy Amsterdam from a US template, will support the sponsorship. The ads will break on May 2, while the film opens in the UK on May 23.

A spokeswoman for Coca-Cola says the Matrix tie-up is a “good fit” for the brand because the film’s target audience of 16- to 29-year-old males is a key consumer segment of Powerade. The futuristic look of Powerade and its packaging also works with Matrix imagery, she adds.

A Powerade television campaign, not part of the Matrix tie-up, launched this week. It was developed specifically for the UK by Wieden & Kennedy Amsterdam. It is an animated campaign, and replaces the strapline “Get Up, Stay Up” from previous campaigns with “Fuel Your Obsession”.

Powerade was relaunched in the UK in November 2001 (MW October 18, 2001) as a rival to GlaxoSmithKline’s Lucozade Sport. Pepsi’s contender in the sports drink sector, Gatorade, is thought to be planning to boost its presence in the UK later this year.

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