Kombucha entered the health & wellness sector with gusto. But that was a limiting place. Especially when it began to expand with fruity flavours. So, like a hundred other “functional” drink brands, it spilled out into a messy sector called “beverages”, also populated by energy drinks, soft drinks and flavoured mineral waters.
A year ago, kombucha brand, Health-Ade, launched a campaign that straddled the soft drink-health drink borders. Thrill Your Gut is a soft drink campaign (fun, bright, humorous) with a functional promise (supporting gut health), held together by a wildly camp Gut Guy, the brand’s cheeky and charming gut health flavour genie. The work reinforces Health-Ade’s belief that feeling good should fit into real life. Gut Guy pops up in everyday moments as a snacking sidekick, a light, relatable reminder that feeling good can start from the inside out.
Now as the annual New Year, New You reset kicks into high gear, Health-Ade and branding and advertising agency, Funday, are reintroducing the brand’s more grounded approach to wellness, one built around everyday habits rather than all-or-nothing resolutions – building on what made the original work resonate: using wit and personality to make kombucha’s functional benefits feel less clinical, and a lot more accessible and fun.
The campaign extension aims to continue its standout performance. Over the past 52 weeks, Health-Ade grew 2.1% in dollar sales while the broader kombucha category declined 6.8%. With a 24% dollar share, the brand is driving more than 100% of category growth, momentum Health-Ade attributes to sustained brand-building efforts plus product quality and distribution gains.
“The new year often comes with pressure to change everything at once,” stated Sandra Heidrich, vice president, marketing of Health-Ade Kombucha. “Bringing back Gut Guy allowed us to continue showing up with a point of view that feels familiar, approachable, and grounded in how people actually live, especially at a moment when people are looking for sustainable ways to feel good.”
“From the beginning, Gut Guy was designed to help simplify the conversation around kombucha and gut health,” said Jared Folkmann, chief creative officer at FUNDAY. “When you see the kind of performance Health-Ade is delivering, it validates that the creative platform is doing its job. This extension evolves the work while staying true to what made it resonate: making wellness feel exciting and accessible, not intimidating.”
The US campaign is launching between January 1 and 5 across TV, OOH, digital, and paid social, including Instagram and Facebook.
Credits:
Client: Health-Ade
Agency: FUNDAY
Founders: Jared Folkmann & Alex Baghdjian
Chief Creative Officer: Jared Folkmann
Executive Creative Director: Kathryn Whiteside
Creative Director: Stefan Smith
Associate Creative Director (Art): Taylor Lumley
Copywriter: Samantha Angus
Senior Designer: Dylan Rozario
Head of Strategy: Kelsey Chudiak
Account Director: Yvonne Pikula
Director of Digital Production: Melania Melikian
Editor: Lily Zakaryan
Colourist: Cereal Post
Visual Effects Studio: FUNDAY
Production Lead: Harry Zakaryan
VFX: Karen Hovhannisyan
