Energy drink brands left the gym for the NYC marathon

Energy drinks are often spotted in the hands—or gym bags—of the most muscular-looking guys around. But it’s not only gymfluencers in need of a pick-me-up, and energy drink brands Celsius and C4 Energy are making efforts to connect with a broader range of fitness and health communities.

At the New York City Marathon last weekend, both brands embraced guerilla marketing tactics like sampling to get on the radars of runners and spectators alike.

“What it means to be an athlete can expand into a lot of territories, and I think it’s important that no one feels excluded in our marketing materials,” Katie Geyer, SVP of partnerships and integrated marketing at C4 parent company Nutrabolt, told Marketing Brew. “Being an athlete can mean a lot of things to a lot of different people..and so it is more of a lifestyle approach that we’re taking moving forward.”

Yes, we can

While Celsius started engaging with marathons around 2019, ahead of a post-pandemic surge in sponsorship and participant interest, last weekend marked its “first really big, owned activation” around a race, Celsius Chief Brand Officer Kyle Watson told us. C4, meanwhile, began partnering over the summer with run clubs, an increasingly popular marketing channel, but this was its marathon debut, Geyer said.

Both brands spent marathon Sunday setting out to get cans in hands. Celsius handed out 6,500 beverages over the weekend, according to the brand, while C4, which sent field teams out with backpacks and set up a “mini headquarters” around mile 11, gave away about 3,600 cans, Geyer said. C4 also handed out t-shirts, foam fingers, and C4-branded signs for spectators to customize.

Sampling wasn’t the energy drink brands’ only marathon goals, and both execs said they were also aiming to solidify connections with consumers and stakeholders including consumers, influencers, and employees in the area. Neither brand inked an official sponsorship of the marathon, but Watson said the more guerilla-style approach served to strengthen community ties.

“At the end of the day, you’re creating emotional experiences and emotional connections with your consumers, and that's what’s important to us,” she said. “Slapping a logo on something and maybe setting a booth is not necessarily always as emotionally connected as we want to be as a brand.”

Instead, the Celsius team held a pop-up event in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, from Thursday through Monday, where they hosted a dinner and panel discussion with athletes, offered morning stretches and yoga and a recovery zone with massage guns, led a shakeout run, and set up a cheer zone on Bedford Avenue in the neighborhood, Watson said.

C4 put on three days of events, from a Saturday shakeout run to a recovery day on Monday, according to Geyer. The brand also sponsored 10 marathoners and surprised them with a billboard featuring their names in Times Square, she said.

The activations were meant to increase brand awareness and household penetration in New York, a major market for C4, while also tapping into C4’s network of creators in the area, Geyer said. In addition to the 10 ambassadors who ran, 10 other influencer partners attended the brand’s watch party at mile 11 and helped hand out almost 300 branded signs, according to C4.

Fitting in

For Celsius and C4, their work at the NYC marathon fit into larger brand campaigns designed to reach consumers outside of pro athletes and fitness fanatics.

Celsius built on its “Live. Fit. Go” campaign that’s meant to “cement our brand” in conversations around fitness, and positions Celsius as a lifestyle brand as it expands beyond energy drinks and into products like hydration packets, she said.

“We’re really trying to make sure that people understand our offering as more” than a workout supplement, Watson said. “It’s energy for everything…It’s definitely not just for the gym.”

C4 is similarly striving to broaden its appeal, and found the NYC Marathon to be an ideal event for growing its audience, Geyer said.

“The New York marathon is such a buzzy and cultural moment,” she said. “Whether you’re running, whether you’re spectating, whether you’re supporting, there’s something for everyone.”