Founders Makers redesigns Hi*Ball for UK launch

American beverage owner Tilray Brands has introduced sparkling energy water Hi*Ball to the UK, marking the brand’s first venture outside the United States.

The launch acts as the opening move in an international expansion that will eventually encompass European markets, the Middle East, and APAC. Rather than replicating the American aesthetic, London creative studio Founders Makers led an end-to-end transformation tailored specifically to British consumers.

In the United States, Hi*Ball has maintained a loyal following for years, supported by a broad range of products and a sports-coded visual identity. To establish a presence in one of the UK’s most competitive beverage categories, Founders Makers executed consumer research to determine local flavour preferences, arriving at a core four-flavour line-up of peach, wild berry, lemon-lime and vanilla. The studio also replaced the original, bulky US container format with a slimmer silhouette designed to resonate on British shelves.

Charlie Holman, strategy director at Founders Makers, said: “Hi*Ball already had a loyal following in the US, but a successful product in one market doesn’t automatically translate to another. Our job wasn’t to copy the American brand across; it was to understand what would make it relevant in the UK.

“From the flavour range to the packaging and positioning, every decision was shaped around creating a clearer, more differentiated proposition for British consumers. Bringing an existing product into a new market is as much a brand and design challenge as a commercial one, and that’s exactly the space we love working in.”

A new retail category

The central design challenge centred on the fact that Hi*Ball did not fit neatly into existing UK retail categories. The drink provides a clear, lightly flavoured sparkling water experience while delivering a functional blend of 100mg of natural caffeine, four essential B vitamins and 35mg each of ginseng and guarana extract. Containing zero sugar, zero calories and zero artificial sweeteners, its caffeine content is roughly equivalent to a flat white.

Founders Makers addressed this positioning dilemma by focusing on the description of sparkling energy water. The studio created an identity that signals both the visual cues of premium flavoured waters and the functional benefits of traditional energy drinks.

Under the brand platform ‘refresh your energy’, the visual system steps away from the heavy imagery of standard energy products to highlight the drink’s clear, water-like profile.

The updated packaging features a silver aluminium can with an iridescent sheen reflecting the liquid inside. The composition is anchored by the Hi*Ball wordmark and star emblem, framed by single-colour flavour coding consisting of green for lemon-lime, pink for wild berry, orange for peach and brown for vanilla.

A prominent “0” graphic is positioned on the can to communicate the zero-sugar and zero-sweetener formula at first glance. The broader design system extends across digital channels, retail sampling units and partnership activations.

Holman explained how the studio’s role evolved during the project, saying: “We were approached to bring it into market; as part of the scope, we were asked to look at messaging, but as we looked at messaging we felt that we had an opportunity to redefine the packaging in order to bring it in line with new market positioning.”

British consumer habits

Through the research process, Founders Makers identified distinct consumer dynamics across the UK energy and functional drink landscape. The studio found that many existing “clean” energy drink offerings struggle commercially because they rely heavily on what it terms the “language of less”, focusing on omitted ingredients rather than functional benefits. This messaging often leaves cleaner products appearing weaker to consumers who actively seek energising results.

In response to cost pressures, British shoppers are increasingly seeking high functionality and “value of power” per sip, prioritising tangible energy performance. Research highlighted two key demographics: natural-first energy shoppers, predominantly female consumers who reject artificial ingredients, and gym-to-desk professionals who track macros and seek functional beverages.

Furthermore, while a gap exists between functional energy drinks and sparkling waters, UK consumers previously lacked a reference point for sparkling energy water. To address these market conditions, Founders Makers established a brand presence that bypasses typical challenger tropes.

Holman noted: “To succeed, the brand must avoid acting like a small start-up and instead project the scale, swagger and credibility of an established brand.”

The UK design framework now serves as the operational template for Hi*Ball as Tilray Brands prepares to roll out the brand across European, Middle Eastern and APAC markets.