Coca-Cola takes on category pioneers and gut health innovators Poppi and Olipop, which launched in 2020 and 2018 respectively.
Poppi and Olipop have gained a cult following among their fans for their gut-friendly formulations, lifestyle positioning and better-for-you credentials. How will the charge from mass market giant Coca-Cola – under the Simply brand – transform the category?
Growing the gut health category
The gut health soda category is small but growing fast. Soda with digestive health claims saw 301.5% dollar growth in 2023, according to SPINS MULO data.
On Tuesday (February 18, 2025), Coca-Cola announced its entry into the prebiotic soda space with Simply Pop: a drink that will be housed under the existing Simply juice, lemonade and smoothie brand.
Simply Pop
Simply Pop contains prebiotic fiber to support gut health, contains vitamin C and Zinc to support immune function, and contains no added sugar. It is made with 25-30% real fruit juice.
Launching at the end of this month, Simply Pop comes in five flavors already familiar with Simply fans: strawberry, pineapple mango, fruit punch, lime and citrus punch.
Coca-Cola has made no secret of its ambitions to play in gut health: muting a prebiotic soda launch last year as it championed the potential of the category. The first clear effect of its launch in the gut health category is that it can instantly achieve mass market scale and drive awareness and visibility of the category forward.
And that’s a development that’s welcomed by existing players, who have taken on the task of expanding the category to date.
Along with fellow prebiotic soda Poppi, Olipop dominates the gut health soda category. Last year, the company was featured on Time100’s Most Influential Companies 2024 list and is credited with leading the charge for healthier sodas. Founder Ben Goodwin says the entry of Coca-Cola into the category validates the mission of these start-up challengers.
“It’s a massive honor that the largest soda brand in the world has decided that the category we invented, and the Olipop team has brought to life, is a great place for them to seek growth,” he told us.
“It’s certainly a validator that the modern soda category has officially become mainstream and has a bright future.”
Ben Goodwin founded the brand in 2018 with the mission to revolutionize soda as Americans know it. His quest is to take this staple of American lifestyles and turn it from a sugar-high of empty calories into a soda that still delivers on flavor, fun and nostalgia – but with a health boost.
Olipop has gone from strength to strength: the brand has a consistent trajectory of triple-digit growth to date and recently completed a $50m Series C funding round that values the brand at a cool $1.85bn.
Olipop is a drink that’s high in fiber, with 2-5g of sugar, and which supports digestive health. The functional beverage is made with a blend of botanicals and prebiotics, with each ingredient chosen for its biome-supporting benefits.
“I am looking forward to getting a better understanding of what to expect from Simply Pop’s functional ingredients as I believe it’s important that these products should stay true to the standards and benefits that consumers expect from functional beverages,” said Goodwin.
Taking gut health into the mainstream
What Coca-Cola is setting out to do is to use its might and muscle to take the success seen by Olipop and Poppi into the mainstream.
Can Simply Pop be 'modern, trendy and cool'?
Brand tracking platform Tracksuit has been looking at how consumers view gut health superstars Poppi and Olipop - compared to classic traditional sodas such as Coca-Cola.
Unsurprisingly, Coca-Cola is associated with terms such as ‘classic’, ‘traditional’ and ‘timeless’: highlighting its longstanding presence and dominance across global markets.
But Poppi is described in terms such as ‘novel’, ‘trendy’, ‘modern’, ‘innovative’, ‘slylish’, and ‘promising’: illustrating the potential of the brand as well as its attention to detail around more lifestyle marketing.
Olipop, similarly, prompts descriptors such as ‘luxurious’, ‘quality’, ‘unique’, ‘cool’ and ‘innovative’: suggesting a perception of a high-quality, unique brand with a modern twist.
That’s why it’s decided to launch its gut health proposition under Simply: a brand which already has a fresh and better-for-you image with its line of fruit juices, lemonades and smoothies.
That means it can leverage that brand equity to attract consumers who ‘are curious about prebiotic sodas but who haven’t yet taken the leap’.
That’s a trend that’s ready to be tapped into, says Shelley Balanko, PhD, Senior Vice President of Business Development at Hartman Group.
“41% of US consumers are either taking steps to improve or prevent future problems with their gut health — it’s an enduring trend we’ve been watching for over a decade at Hartman Group," she told us.
“Gut health claims are certainly not new in the functional beverage space, however, consumers still have a strong appetite for innovation: of past-3-month category purchasers, 43% are interested in trying new, premium-quality functional beverage options.
“Coca Cola’s entry into the category supports continued brand relevancy by not only meeting minimum expectations around fresh, less processed ingredients, but aligning with the modern consumer’s health and wellness priorities.”
Could gut health work for the flagship Coca-Cola brand?
In the US, Coca-Cola has not tried to fit gut health into its flagship Coca-Cola soda brand: knowing that health conscious consumers associate the brand negatively with its high sugar content.
However, it has experimented with functionality via Coca-Cola Coffee as an afternoon pick-me-up.
And in Japan - a market known for its forward-thinking innovations - it has Coca-Cola Plus (Coca-Cola Plus contains dietary fiber dextrin to suppress the absorption of fat from food and moderate neutral fat level spikes in the blood after eating).
Coca-Cola will power the launch of Simply Pop with a range of activations to help it reach out to new consumers: using out-of-home, digital and influencer-driven social media creative, as well as robust sampling and experiential activations.
Olipop has put a lot of work into tapping into America’s long-time love of soda and translating that into a curiosity of Modern Soda. That’s a tactic that Simply will also embrace: although this time via its juice brand that Gen Z have grown up with (“Gen Z don’t remember a world where Simply doesn’t exist, and it’s the juice they’ve seen in the fridge throughout their lives, so it has a particular tug on their heartstrings,” according to Terika Fasakin, North America Brand Senior Director, Simply and Kids).
PepsiCo gears up for gut health launch
Not to be outdone, PepsiCo is reportedly gearing up to re-launching sparkling water brand Soulboost (a functional soda it initially debuted in 2021 with ingredients such as L-theanine and panax ginseng) with a gut-friendly formula.
Modern Soda: Gut health is just the beginning...
Gut health is just one part of the ‘Modern Soda’ wave taking over the US. Walmart, for example, now has a dedicated modern soda section in store which stocks brands such as Olipop, Poppi and Zevia.
“The consumer has spoken, and Modern Soda is here to stay,” said Danny Stepper, CEO of LA-based next generation beverage incubator LA Libations.
“Retailers are re-allocating their space accordingly, we are seeing Modern Soda sets appearing with brands like Poppi & Olipop but also new differentiated brands like Cove (Certified Organic, No Sugar) making waves. This category started at Erewhon & Sprouts but it has rapidly expanded and is beginning to make a material impact to traditional retail at places like Walmart, Target, Kroger & Albertsons.”
Coca-Cola’s launch of Simply Pop is not only about the rise of gut health, but the rise of modern soda as a whole, he continues
“It seems that gut health has birthed the modern soda category, but our view is that there may be other healthy and functional elements on the horizon - there is a lot of entrepreneurial energy exploring Soda Plus.”
