The functional drinks boom: Why brands need PR that builds trust, not just buzz

Canned water brand Liquid Death entered the UK functional drinks market with a bang in 2023. Its slogan, ‘murder your thirst’, stood out from a water aisle that primarily talked about sustainability and health.

Yet two years later, the drink exited the UK market. The decision was blamed on a number of factors, including production capabilities and a marketing strategy that chimed more with US consumers.

But the ‘murder your thirst’ slogan also points to a wider issue. Increasingly, consumers are looking for drinks that do more than just hydrate. In the UK, the real growth is coming from the functional drinks market.

As The Grocer reported in June, functional soft drinks racked up growth of £24m last year. That matched the growth of the entire carbonated category, despite being less than 5% of its size [Northstar by Circana 52 w/e 25 January 2025]. 

Functional spans a wide range of products, from juice shots to gut health sodas, kefirs, CBD blends and energy drinks with immunity-supporting vitamins. In what is shaping up to be an unusually hot summer, we’re also hearing of a rise in demand for drinks containing electrolytes.

These added benefits are becoming so widespread that drinks are now encroaching into the supplements category. There’s a clear opportunity here if brands can marry taste with functionality and communicate their benefits with clarity and credibility. After all, a tasty drink that provides vitamins, gut health, or a collagen boost can feel more appealing than popping a regime of pills. 

But there’s also a potential downside. Supplements are already under close scrutiny for making overzealous claims, particularly on social media. The more drinks venture in this territory, the more they will face this kind of scrutiny. 

Already, 54% of consumers think food and drink brands exaggerate health claims, found a Nexus survey of over 2,000 UK consumers in 2024.

So if functional brands hope to achieve sustainable growth, they will need to ensure they are transparent with consumers, and only claim exactly what they can prove. This is where strategic, clear PR becomes essential – not just to stand out, but to build lasting trust. Functional brands need to balance cut-through messaging with accuracy, ensuring they don’t promise more than they can prove. 

Otherwise, they could just murder the thirst for the category before it reaches its potential.

Nexus delivers standout wellness PR campaigns for some of the UK’s most progressive and purpose-led brands. 

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