Coca-Cola relaunched Mr. Pibb one year ago, returning the soda — marketed as Pibb Xtra for more than two decades — to its roots. After releasing in a handful of markets last fall, the revamped brand went national in February. Since then, it was the focus of a campaign around basketball culture in March and grew volume more than 20% during Q2 2026, per Coca-Cola’s most recent earnings call.
Mr. Pibb has grown its audience by 4 million households since the beginning of the year and overindexes with households that include millennial and Gen Z members, per details shared by the brand. Mr. Pibb is seeing significant traction with so-called “zillennial” consumers who have been drawn to the beverage’s caffeinated, spicy-cherry-flavored kick.
“We saw there was a massive opportunity within spicy cherry, which was growing very fast within the [sparkling soft drink] category,” said Farhan Ali, senior director of sparkling flavors for Coca-Cola North America. “That's been the edge that we have built our entire relaunch around, whether you look at our packaging or the way we communicate the product.”
The relaunch helped Mr. Pibb earn the title of 2026’s fastest-growing brand, per a Morning Consult report that saw the brand grow consideration more than 11 percentage points. Mr. Pibb was the top-ranked brand across a handful of demographics and saw purchase consideration double after a bump in awareness, per the report. The brand recorded its biggest gains with Generation X and millennials and smallest growth rate with Gen Z, per the report.
To build on its momentum, Coca-Cola will release Mr. Pibb Black-Current — an intentionally misspelled offering featuring blackberry and black currant flavors — in spring 2027. The launch, alongside new better-for-you and prebiotic options from across the company’s portfolio, was previewed ahead of the 2026 National Association of Convenience Stores Show earlier this month.
Since its relaunch, Mr. Pibb has utilized a three-pronged strategy that looks to build distribution to help consumers find the brand; communicate across touchpoints with campaigns like the one from March that featured NBA legend Scottie Pippen; and get consumers to sample the brand.
“In the lead launch markets where we see our biggest opportunities, we have sampled all year — it’s an always-on approach for us,” Ali said. “When consumers are in the store and they discover new products, how do we disrupt that journey and get them to try Mr. Pibb?”
The brand expects its Black-Current flavor to drive significant trial in 2027, and is expanding into new packages in an effort to connect with more consumers as it scales up. In the back half of the year, Mr. Pibb will launch a partnership with a third-party delivery company to drive association and sampling of the brand with late-night food and during snacking occasions.
“What people want from their beverages continues to evolve, from new flavors and experiences to added functionality,” Shakir Moin, president of marketing for Coca‑Cola North America, said in a statement around the NACS announcement. “The breadth of our portfolio gives us an incredible opportunity to meet those changing needs and give people more choices for more moments throughout their day.”
