Marketing support for bottled water brands continues to revolve largely around sports sponsorships.

Highland Spring has sponsored tennis player Andy Murray for four years and also sponsors cyclist Sir Chris Hoy, who featured in an on-pack promotion in 2009. But the biggest investment in advertising in bottled water was by Danone Waters.

It ploughed more than £1.3m into support for Evian's sponsorship of Wimbledon and spent £2m funding the Volvic Challenge, which encouraged consumers to drink two litres of water a day for two weeks.

But it was a viral internet film of babies appearing to rollerskate that really garnered attention for Evian, attracting 45 million views on YouTube. This concept was transferred to TV for a campaign in January that Evian says has already lifted sales for that month by 31.8%.

Meanwhile, Highland Spring chose to reduce its TV spend during 2009, says head of brand marketing Paul Conron.

"We put the money into on-pack promotions and a small press campaign," he adds. Nestlé also avoided TV ad campaigns for its Pure Life launch but sponsored a series of GMTV segments on nutrition.

Focus On Bottled Water