LUCOZADE: THE EDGE

'The Edge' is the distance between success and failure

One of Lucozade's longest running campaigns was 'The Edge' campaign.
Look at this television advert to see how Lucozade visually represents how the energy drink gives consumers 'the edge' over competitors: see the advert here on TellyAds.

Lucozade was initially marketed as a drink for sick people to aid their recovery, but sales flagged with better public health. The brand reinvented itself as a sports drink for healthy people, one which would improve performance.

Lucozade is placed prominently. The sick child gazes longingly at his friends in the garden.

We watch an early advertisement in which a sick child cannot play with his friends as he is ill. TellyAds here.The message of the campaign is that a caring mother gives her child Lucozade to help him recover quickly so that he doesn't miss out. The brand sells itself as a vital part of the recovery process, but the target market is clearly a sick child.

The slogan  changed from"Lucozade aids recovery" to "Lucozade replaces lost energy"

Arguably the single greatest piece of marketing to (re)position a brand by borrowing imagery from sports is the stunning ad campaign by Ogilvy & Mather for Lucozade in the mid 1980s. Lucozade featured Daley Thompson, the world class Olympic athlete, in the famous traffic lights campaign, to sell Lucozade as an essential tool in optimizing sporting performance. We watch it HERE. Shortly after his second Olympic success at Los Angeles in 1984, Daley Thompson became the new face for Lucozade. This advert started with the traffic lights and the introduction to an Iron Maiden song “Phantom of the Opera” from their first album, and Daley Thompson training on some track in the middle of nowhere. 
This campaign repositioned Lucozade from a medicine for tired and poorly children (and their mothers) to a fuel for athletes. “Aiding Recovery” became “Replacing Lost Energy”. This was a product for grown-ups, for healthy people, for athletic people, for men. It was no longer a sign of illness or weakness, but a sign of personal strength. And what better personification of that strength than Daley Thompson? For good measure, the voiceover at the end of the commercial is by Des Lynam, at that time the BBC’s flagship sports presenter. And in purely executional terms, it’s about as far from their adverts of the 1970s as it’s possible to be.

In one ad campaign Lucozade invented the energy drinks market, which is now worth over $7bn in the US and £1bn in the UK alone. In the few years following this repositioning, its UK sales more than trebled as people who had never considered the product started adopting it in droves.
Lucozade took on a new role that now is completely understood, but at the time was revolutionary. To achieve such a leap in people’s minds it clearly needed help, so it borrowed Daley Thompson. If anyone needed to replace lost energy, he was the man. He was exactly the sort of person who needed Lucozade, we just hadn’t realised it until then. This was a landmark campaign that enabled Lucozade to extend its presence into countless sports and even music festivals.  
(With thanks to Chris Moody's blog)