Official or Outlaw? Prime Hydration Must Choose What It Wants To Be

Outside of wondering who the official drone manufacturer of the Canadian women’s soccer team is, the biggest sports marketing controversy in the leadup to the Paris 2024 Games is Prime Hydration’s marketing campaign that led the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee to file a federal lawsuit against the two-year-old sports drink brand founded by YouTube influencers Logan Paul and KSI.

According to NBC News, the filing alleges that “Prime Hydration used trademarked phrases—such as ‘Olympic,’ ‘Olympian,’ ‘Team USA’ and ‘Going for Gold’—on its product packaging and in its online advertisements. Ad copy seen at online stores selling Prime, specifically the drink made in partnership with NBA star and U.S. Olympic men’s basketball team member Kevin Durant, described the product as the ‘Team USA Kevin Durant Drink and the ‘Kevin Durant Olympic Prime Drink.’”

I have often come to the defense of brands involved in so-called “ambush marketing,” strongly believing that seeking to capitalize on the thematic space of a major happening, or counteract a competitor that has exclusive sponsor status, is a legitimate business move. But I have always qualified that argument by saying brands cannot violate trademark rights, use IP they are not entitled to or cross other legal boundaries.

Quite frankly, I did not anticipate any marketer other than maybe a local shop owner or a brand flying under the radar on the fringes of the Internet would act as blatantly as Prime has. As I wrote here prior to the Tokyo Olympic Games: “No company of consequence would even attempt such a thing given the potential damage to its reputation.”

Clearly, I was wrong, which brings us to the question of why Prime went in this surprising direction.

We can eliminate any idea that the use of Olympic terms and trademarks was accidental. Unless the upstart brand’s marketing is run by complete neophytes with no supervision from the legal departments at Prime Hydration LLC or parent company Congo Brands, this was a deliberate attempt to capture the attention of the USOPC and IOC and reap the publicity from the Olympic bodies’ inevitable response.

Such a stunt could potentially pay dividends for a true outlaw brand that wants to establish its anti-establishment bona fides with a niche target audience. But following its meteoric rise on the back of Paul’s and KSI’s celebrity, Prime has made a number of moves to be seen as a mainstream competitor to Gatorade, Powerade and others, including the signing of official partnerships with five top European pro soccer teams, two NBA teams, WWE/UFC and the Los Angeles Dodgers alongside blue-chip athletes such as Patrick Mahomes, Aaron Judge and Kyle Larsen.

Trying to have it both ways and act as a rogue outsider while also being part of the system will only cause a brand to lose credibility with everyone—most importantly fans, consumers, and potential and prospective partners.

For a brand that was on its way to overcoming any perceptions that it was a flash-in-the- and establishing itself as a real player in a hyper-competitive segment, this demonstrated lack of authenticity could prove to be a tremendous setback.