Blue Marlin fashions a striking new look for the relaunch of V Water Britvic Soft Drinks and PepsiCo UK are throwing their collective weight behind V Water by relaunching it under the SoBe brand and giving it a vibrant new look created by long standing design partner Blue Marlin.

The new look makes its debut this month and will be backed by a £5m marketing spend. Functional water has been a star performer over the past year, showing consistent growth and an increasing value share of the total bottled water market. The market is now worth £164m annually and sales of V Water were up by 152 per cent in the year to December 2010 (Neilsen Scantrack).

“We believe there is even more room for growth,” says Jon Evans, head of seed brands at Brtivic. “SoBe V Water offers consumers a great tasting low calorie drink with the added benefit of vitamins. Each individual flavour includes a mix of vitamins designed to suit every consumer, no matter their mood or need-state. We are confident the eye-catching design will help it to stand out in the market.”

The range comes in six flavours, each of which has been given an arresting colour palette and sassy name, such as Vrroom, Kick and Forti-fight. Blue Marlin creative director Simon Pendry comments, “SoBe appeals to a diverse range of consumers whose shared trait is that they value substance over style. Thanks to the new look, SoBe V Water has both. Being brought under the SoBe umbrella, V Water’s new packaging really leaps out at you. V Water is a great product and SoBe is a really strong brand that is perfect for this era.”