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The high levels of support were most apparent in the cola segment. Coca-Cola ploughed £14.5m of advertising support into original Coke alone - more than twice the amount of any other drinks brand. The investment helped it to grow take-home sales value by 6% to £749m. Meanwhile, Pepsi spent £2.8m on its core brand, boosting sales value by 14% to £195m.

In the generally struggling 'fruit fizz' segment, Fanta and Tango had wildly varying levels of success from their promotional strategies.

Coca-Cola's £4.4m ad investment in Fanta helped it grow take-home sales by 50% to £149m, while rival Britvic's £3.3m ad campaign for Tango failed to prevent a 13% slump in sales to £60m.

The entire soft drinks sector achieved a 5% increase in take-home sales value, continuing 15 years of growth.

"The average Brit now consumes 206 litres of soft drinks each year, still well below US levels," said Britvic category director Andrew Marsden at the launch of the report.

The report revealed that premium sub-categories such as mineral water, fruit drinks and functional drinks are the key drivers for this growth.

Brands such as Robinsons, J20, Tropicana, Lucozade and Red Bull all outstripped the market in take-home sales growth.

Sue Garfitt, Britvic's director of category planning, said: "There were 250 soft drinks launches in 2002, more than in any other FMCG sector."

TOP UK SOFT DRINKS BRANDS
Brand               Value   Year-on-year
              (pounds m)     growth (%)
Coca-Cola             749            6.0
Robinsons             232           14.0
Pepsi Cola            195           14.0
Ribena                154           -1.0
Lucozade              152           12.0
Source: ACNielsen. Figures for take-home sales value, 2002