So what is the SUSO drink? Sean Uprichard, the CEO at SUSO tells us "SUSO is unashamedly a fizzy drink, but a new kind of fizzy drink - one that is ‘better for you'."
On investigation SUSO does indeed contain 100% fruit juice, it's carbonated, and with no additives whatsoever - no added sugar, no sweeteners, no preservatives, no colourings, no added flavourings, nothing. It comes in three flavours - Orange, Lemon and Berry - all in a handy 250ml can size. According to Alyson Carter, a nutritional therapist at Nutrition 4 Life, "It's nothing but fruit and bubbles. All the nutritional value of a piece of fruit but with the refreshment thrown in. What a great idea for a fizzy drink!" It's hard to disagree.
Unsurprisingly then, SUSO meets all the nutritional standards for food and drink in schools. As one of the only fizzy drinks cleared for distribution in the education sector, SUSO does stand out as the soft drink that we can all - parents, teachers, nutritionists and caterers alike - feel comfortable giving to our children. The real ‘eureka moment' though is when you consider these strong better for you credentials alongside the fact that SUSO is actually proving to be the fizzy drink children really want for themselves.
Unlike other healthy soft drinks, SUSO are doing things very differently around the activating and marketing of their drink. Their advertising steers well clear of driving home any hardcore health messages. They seem to have recognised that too much of this only puts many of us off. They also recognise that children, teens and young adults are going to buy what they want and that is very rarely driven by images of fruit and overt health claims.
Instead, SUSO aims to inspire young people, instilling in them the positive ‘No Can't Do' attitude which Sean tells us SUSO is all about. SUSO celebrates the power of imagination, creativity and determination and looks to inspire us all to harness our own creative potential. The team do this through telling inspirational stories of No Can't Do achievement as they find them (and in some cases enable them to happen) and thereafter through supporting creative communities and projects nationwide. One such creative project is Urban Earth, an ambitious undertaking of urban adventurer and geography teacher Daniel Raven-Ellison. He walks across some of the biggest cities in the world, taking pictures every eight paces and reconstructing the images into stop-frame sequences. His work is fascinating and certainly puts a different angle on geography, making it relevant and engaging to children, and encouraging them to explore and creatively connect with their own surroundings. This and other inspirational ideas are accessible at The SUSO Project (http://www.susoproject.com/), an online ideas and collaboration platform for young people. Grants of between £1,000 and £10,000 are currently available at the site to help fund the development of the best ideas. Sean tells us, ""We believe that imagination, creativity and determination are powerful resources when you put them together and we wanted to put this to the test; to find new platforms to bring young people together, people with talent, ideas and drive to clash heads and create ideas."
You very quickly start to see how the whole thing hangs together. The guys at SUSO are living the brand idea themselves. They fundamentally reject the idea that it can't be done. Walking the talk, through their own imagination creativity and determination they have launched into a very competitive market place, taking on the big corporate businesses that dominate the soft drinks sector in an effort to offer a better choice in fizzy drinks. In offering a ‘better for you' soft drink against a backdrop of brand inspiration and support they are genuinely getting us all, but particularly our children, to drink healthier, be healthier and think creatively.
SUSO is already widely available through national schools distributers and contract caterers.
For more information contact heather Gillespie on 0800 6349167 / heather@suso.co.uk and look out for SUSO and your free sample at the BETTS trade show with Education Today in January. Stand w19
