Elevate How You Hydrate
Alkaline water was eating into smartwater's 25-year franchise. So instead of chasing the performance-water crowd everyone else was fighting over, we built a launch for people who just wanted to elevate everything about how they live.
Defending a 25-year franchise.
Alkaline water, with its higher pH and functional performance claims, was driving nearly all of the growth in the bottled water category, and Essentia had built a real lead at the top of it. That growth was starting to erode smartwater's own legacy and market share.
To protect the franchise, smartwater needed to launch its own alkaline product, and launch it in a way that didn't just imitate the performance-water playbook everyone else was already running. Choosing a target with more than a fitness mindset, the team positioned smartwater Alkaline with Antioxidant as “a lifestyle water for fitness enthusiasts, not a fitness water for performance.”
One line, going up.
“This ‘Elevate How You Hydrate’ idea is very simple: all about going up, literally going up vertically, going up in the air, elevating in everything we do,” said Kyle Gracey. The eponymous film follows that idea literally, an urban relay race that takes a bottle of smartwater Alkaline up through the city, commuting, BMX biking, running, culminating on the roof of a skyscraper.
BMX athlete Nigel Sylvester, British Olympic gold medalist Bianca Williams, and Peloton instructor Alex Toussaint carry the bottle in turn, a deliberately wide range of activity rather than a single sport. “With our consumers, once you get going, whether that's through work, sport, or hanging out with your friends, you're always in motion, and that's the energy the team really captured,” said Luke Perkins, group director of creative strategy at The Coca-Cola Company.
Same Kid
For the lighter half of the platform, smartwater spun off “Same Kid,” starring longtime brand ambassador Pete Davidson, and his actual mom. Davidson insists he's still the same kid from Staten Island, just a little more elevated, his video games are now VR, his mom's cooking is now truffle grilled cheese, his nights out are now red carpets.
To extend the moment, smartwater gave away 30 mini kegs of Alkaline with Antioxidant, each signed by Davidson with its own certificate of authenticity.
Elevate everything, not just the pH.
From the product photography to the talent literally lifted off the ground, the campaign carried its own idea through every execution, animated Times Square boards, social extensions, and live events in New York and LA, running for over a year.
The Results
Awards
Campaign Trail: Smartwater Elevates Hydration With Athletes, and Pete Davidson
Talented Partners
Agency
VMLY&R
Creative
Jess Elwood
Creative DirectorJohn Potter
Creative DirectorKyle Gracey
Group Creative DirectorGlen Scott
Executive Creative DirectorStrategy
Teny Akay
Group Director, Strategy & InsightsBusiness Leadership
Nat Carey
Managing DirectorRafael Pitanguy
Deputy Global Chief Creative Officer