Why PRIME Hydration Has Caused Havoc in South Africa
Checkers has completely sold out the energy drink in a few hours with the sole reason being two of the biggest YouTubers in the world.
This morning, 1 May 2023, hundreds of customers queued outside Checkers and Checkers Hyper stores all over the country to be the first to get their hands on the Prime Hydration energy drink which launched for the first time in South Africa. Within a matter of hours, the energy drink which was unknown to most people, was sold out both in store and on the Checkers Sixy60 app. Behind all this chaos are two of the biggest YouTubers on earth – KSI and Logan Paul.
Olajide “JJ” Olatunji who is well known as KSI (which stands for Knowledge, Strength and Integrity) is the biggest black YouTuber in the world boasting a 24.1 million subscribers on the KSI channel and 16.2 million on the JJ Olatunji channel. These astounding YouTube subscriber numbers are accompanied by 12.7 million Instagram followers, 11.2 million Tiktok followers and 8.8 million Twitter followers.
The only other YouTuber with comparable fame fortune and influence to KSI is none other than his friend, rival and business partner Logan Alexander Paul who is popularly knows and Logan Paul.
Logan Paul boasts 23.6 million YouTube subscribers, 25.5 million Instagram followers, 6.8 million Twitter followers and 17.3 million TikTok followers. For both Logan Paul and KSI, these are not just numbers on an app but are evidence of the scale of influence and reach that both men have and the enormous numbers of people they can sell a product to.
KSI is a British YouTuber who has captured the imaginations of the British and European markets for over 10 years who started his career as a gaming YouTuber and evolved to include skits and the music videos making which cemented him as one of the biggest and well known YouTubers in all of Europe. Logan Paul similarly has been on the platform for over 10 years starting off with skits and challenges which captured the imaginations of early 2010s YouTube audiences. One common factor that has bound the two YouTubers together is that they both have an audience of mainly teenage boys and this has been the case for the majority of both their careers.
During the pre-pandemic late 2010s, both KSI and Logan Paul did something that changed the YouTube landscape forever – they launched boxing careers. KSI and Logan Paul have to date been in multiple boxing matches, in one of these matches they fought each other, they have made millions of dollars off boxing and have crashed the internet multiple times during their boxing matches. This is the scale to which the followers of these YouTubers are willing to support them.
Logan Paul and KSI became fully aware of the worldwide influence they had and instead of making a lot of money from promoting other people’s products, they decided to create their own product combining their influence and power to create a mega brand.
Because both global superstars are also amateur (some might argue now professional) boxers and are solely responsible for making boxing mainstream among teenage boys in the current day, creating a joint energy drink seemed to be the most natural product to land on. This is how Prime Hydration was born.
On 4 January 2022 the duo announced Prime Hydration energy drink. Both KSI and Logan Paul, through their boxing careers where they have documented their training processes, and have created an image of being strong, energetic and fit men. Although the marketing behind Prime Hydration does not promise young men that they will be boxing champions when they drink it, the association of the strength of these men to the drink has made it very appealing to millions of young men who idolise KSI and Logan Paul and view them as the epitome of strength and masculinity.
It goes without saying that the audiences of KSI and Logan Paul are not just teenage boys but include teenage girls, younger boys and girls, adult people, spans across race lines, continents, religions and cultures. Basically, anywhere in the world where there is an internet connect you will find a KSI or Logan Paul fan. Their ability to reach different kinds of people is part of the reason for the success of the YouTubers and their product.
Prime Hydration first launched in America where it was an instant hit. The product sold out in multiple locations and because the demand significantly exceeded supply, getting your hands on a bottle of Prime became somewhat of a status symbol among teenagers. Global demand for Prime increased when the product was launched in America to the extend that individuals imported Prime from America in large quantities to sell in the Britain and the rest of Europe at exorbitant prices.
Prime Hydration eventually officially launched in Britain and Europe. The increased supply in this region lowered the price of a bottle of Prime but the energy drink was relatively more expensive than similar energy drinks in the market yet outsold all of them. Checkers in South Africa managed to negotiate an exclusive distribution contract to sell Prime Hydration in South Africa and that is how we find ourselves in the chaos we saw this morning at many Checkers stores.
This past week Checkers released on its social media a video of Logan Paul announcing that the drink would be coming to SA. This solidified that this was not a dupe and this energised many of his supporters in SA to be on the lookout for the product. Within hours of Checkers stores being open this morning, there was not a single bottle of Prime Hydration left on store shelves or on the store’s e-commerce app Checkers Sixty60.
Checkers has seemingly struck gold with having exclusive distribution rights for Prime Hydration as it ensures that no one but them have the right to sell a product that is globally in extremely high demand. Only time will tell if the hype is sustainable and if Checkers will indeed yield a return on its investment as it goes without saying that they must have invested a lot of money into getting this exclusive distribution deal.
