Can you tell us a little of the history of your brand?
Mogu Mogu’s journey began in the UK in 2018 after we discovered it during a buying trip in Asia and couldn’t stop thinking about it.
Inspired by traditional Asian desserts and born out of an innovative idea to combine the soft, chewy texture of nata de coco with refreshing, fruit-flavoured drinks, Mogu Mogu is a genuinely unique proposition that offers consumers a fun, multi-sensory drinking experience – summed up perfectly in the ‘Sip, Chew, Feel’ tagline. We could see how well it was performing in the Asian market, and knew there was an opportunity to take it from niche to mainstream.
We initially targeted the Asian community, which was already familiar with nata de coco and with similar drinking experiences in bubble teas. This grassroots approach helped us build a loyal following, but the distinctive blend of exotic fruit flavours with the soft, chewy bits of coconut jelly soon caught the attention of a broader audience — especially Millennial and Gen Z consumers looking for interactive, novel drinking experiences that also offer shareability on social media.
Since then, Mogu Mogu’s innovative formula – and 17-strong range of distinctive flavours including bestselling Lychee and Mango – has carved out a unique niche in the competitive soft drinks market and we’ve driven rapid, sustained growth and interest through an engaging social media and marketing programme. Today, it’s reaching consumers in over 100 countries worldwide, with particular success in markets such as Korea, France and now the UK – which has seen the fastest growth in the last year.
How much is the juice category worth and how is Mogu Mogu currently performing?
We’re drinking juice drinks day in, day out. It’s embedded in our everyday routine and is a multi-million-pound category in which fruit-flavoured juice drinks have become a top choice for over half of consumers1. But, to make the everyday more exciting, shoppers are looking beyond the established brands for bigger, bolder flavours and even new textures.
In 2023, Mogu Mogu became the fastest growing soft drinks brand with a total sell out of 41.7 million bottles2. This huge momentum continued into 2024 as Mogu Mogu broke into the Top 20 Juices & Smoothies3, showing that an exciting challenger brand can keep pace with some of the category’s biggest players. This year is all about sustaining that growth and building on our position as runaway leader in nata de coco beverages, where we already have nearly double the brand awareness of our nearest competitor4.
What is driving this performance?
Exotic flavours, like Passion Fruit and our bestselling Lychee, have been a cornerstone of our success and we’ve disrupted chillers with attention-grabbing innovation that excites shoppers. We’ve even managed to shake up classics by taking traditional British fruit flavours, like Strawberry and Blackcurrant, and reinventing the way shoppers experience these. Our refreshing flavour line-up and signature Mogu Mogu ‘Sip, Chew, Feel’ experience has helped us bring a fresh perspective to the category that shoppers have bought into.
But our strong performance has also been driven by our agility and challenger status. We’ve gained traction by offering unique twists on flavour trends while they’re still relevant. Our Bubble Gum and Cotton Candy flavours helped us tap into the popularity of nostalgic food and drink and successfully expand our appeal among shoppers who already enjoy these flavours in other categories, like confectionery.
What marketing tactics are being used to support the brand?
Our core demographic is more influenced by what they’re seeing on social than in the media, and this is where we first established Mogu Mogu’s viral appeal. Having reached 158.4k followers and 49.5 million views on TikTok5, we’ve leveraged celebrity and influencer culture in an authentic way – through strategic partnerships with new, emerging celebrities that have fast-growing followings. This included our tie-up with K-Pop supergroup Seventeen – the second biggest-selling artist of 2024, only outsold by Taylor Swift – and, more recently, streamers, YouTubers and TikTokers like Shivani Khosla and Amber-Rose Badrudin.
Beyond the core, we extended the brand’s reach with a profile-raising national six-figure OOH campaign that drove awareness to an all-time high last summer across more than 1,000 locations, and to drive this further we launched a code under cap prizes promotion across our entire portfolio.
Is there a trend towards larger formats and how is Mogu Mogu responding to this trend?
There’s a real demand now among a growing group of shoppers for larger formats of their favourite soft drinks as they slim down on their spending when out and about. Instead, they’re looking to enjoy their favourite drinks in better value, bigger pack formats at home.
We’ve responded by launching six-packs of 320ml bottles, as well as family-size 1L bottles, which are going down a storm.
Are no/low sugar products becoming more popular? Does Mogu Mogu have no/low sugar variants?
There’s a definite pool of health-conscious shoppers who want low or no sugar versions of their favourite soft drinks, but not at the expense of sacrificing taste or enjoyment, which is still their number one priority. 7 in 10 soft drinks occasions now feature low and no-calorie beverages6 and we’re tapping into this with our new Zero Sugar range, which is available in two exotic flavours: Mogu Mogu Zero Sugar Summer Berries and Zero Sugar Tropical Delight. Complementing our existing line-up of popular fruit flavours, it’ll help retailers double up on growth and make the most of the surge in popularity of both the sugar-free segment and Mogu Mogu.
What are your predictions for the category in 2025?
Demand for holistic experiences will become an even more prevalent trend this year, whether that’s through wellness-focused products which promise physical and mental health benefits – from good gut health to improved brain function and energy levels – or via a drink that stimulates all the senses, like Mogu Mogu.
Borrowed flavours is another trend that’s going to take off. Soft drinks suppliers will be increasingly looking to other, complementary categories – like confectionery, biscuits, cake and ice cream – for flavour trends which they might be able to make work in their favour. We’re expecting even more weird and whacky flavour combinations, likely with some big cross-category branded collaborations along the way.
How can retailers maximise juice drink sales?
It’s all about multiple sitings of the most popular products, in the highest footfall areas in-store. As the clear number one in this fast-growing segment, we’ve moved seamlessly from gaining a huge following in the convenience sector, to creating major multiple listings with the likes of Asda, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, Iceland and more. In fact, we’ve now got 3,888 distribution points nationwide and counting.
Despite this, we’ve found that the single biggest barrier to purchase is availability. One in four shoppers who are aware of Mogu Mogu but don’t yet buy it, only don’t do so because they can’t get hold of it as often as they would like7. They’ve seen it advertised or on social media, but they just can’t find it. That’s a huge missed opportunity for retailers, but one that can be easily solved simply by stocking the right variants, in the right formats, and in the right places within supermarkets. Think stocking larger formats in in-aisle positions, and giving our 320ml ‘Drink Now’ bottles greater prominence in key front of store locations and next to meal deals.
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