BodyArmor is once again the official sports drink of the NCAA, a relationship it will tip off at the 2026 March Madness tournament with a refreshed version of its “Choose Better” campaign. Sister brand Powerade has been the NCAA sponsor since 2010, except when BodyArmor held the rights in 2019, and BodyArmor will maintain the sponsorship moving forward.
“We’re being very intentional with this decision,” said Tom Gargiulo, CMO of BodyArmor Sports Nutrition, of the sponsorship shift. “Having presence within the NCAA reinforces our commitment to better-for-you hydration [and] it helps us fuel the next generation of athletes, which is very important for the brand. It’s a fantastic parallel between what our brand stands for and all these athletes growing, competing and performing at the highest level.”
As part of the push, a 30-second spot will debut on national TV on Selection Sunday, March 15, just days ahead of the tournament. The spot offers a new take on creative that debuted in 2025 which contrasts mindless workout routines with athletic excellence.
The creative now features LSU guard Flau’jae Johnson and New York Knicks star Jalen Brunson, who was the national player of the year when he helped Villanova win the 2018 tournament. Last year, Powerade extended its “It Takes More” campaign around the March Madness tournament with an effort that included a new TV spot, social content from NIL partners and a new track from LSU’s Johnson, who is also a rapper.
“BodyArmor has always aligned itself with athletes that are up and coming. We prided ourselves on finding athletes before they hit that pinnacle,” Gargiulo explained. “But fast-forward to today, I think we’ve really fine-tuned our roster to have a lot of athletes that … still very much have so much ahead in their careers and on their roadmap that really stand for the brand.”
BodyArmor will be the only hydration beverage at the tournament, spanning towels, sports bottles and coolers on NCAA benches and at hydration stations. It will see its branding extended across broadcasts, in-arena signage, digital platforms and out-of-home advertising. BodyArmor is also teaming with more than 20 NIL athletes for digital and social content.
Preparing for the future of functionality
Coca-Cola-owned BodyArmor debuted the “Choose Better” campaign last year as part of the largest media spend in the brand’s history. The campaign launch arrived alongside a refreshed visual identity that included a sharper wordmark, cleaner typography, bolder packaging and BodyArmor’s first brand icon. Since the brand’s evolution kicked off last year, BodyArmor has seen improvement in key performance metrics, Gargiulo said.
“We’re growing share as a business [and] improving our velocity and our unit movement at the store level. We’re seeing the excitement from our retail partners and bottling partners. It’s been tremendous, and we’re carrying that momentum into 2026,” the executive said.
Along with continuing the “Choose Better” campaign, BodyArmor will reveal an innovation that Gargiulo believes will be “incredibly disruptive” in the sports beverage space.
“We’re not launching a better widget,” he said. “We’re launching a completely different widget into the ecosphere.”
BodyArmor’s March Madness push and plans for innovation come as parent company Coca-Cola will fold the BodyArmor Sports Nutrition unit into a new Advanced Hydration unit that also includes Vitaminwater and Smartwater, as first reported by Beverage Digest.
“We’ll have this amazing portfolio of hydration brands that not only stand for unique benefits, but also have the ability to expand in so many different spaces,” Gargiulo said of the move. “Functionality is the future. What better brands to continue to be at the forefront of functionality than these four?”
