Essentia Water is taking to the streets and screens of New York Metropolis with a 360-degree marketing campaign, “Change the Equation,” that appears to encourage shoppers to assume, act and hydrate otherwise. The hyperlocal marketing campaign focuses on the Nestlé alkaline water model’s prime market.
“Launching there actually gave us this chance to pursue a little bit of a unique technique, to focus much less on the breadth, extra on the depth, and actually go all in on the New York market,” mentioned Katherine Weiss, the model’s advertising director.
To intercept New Yorkers throughout all sides of their day, the trouble contains on-line movies, out-of-home adverts, experiential activations, influencer collaborations and an official partnership with Athlos, a women-only observe and discipline occasion.
“We have been actually eager about following the journey of the day: The place are we going to indicate up on this genuine manner for our shoppers?” Weiss mentioned. “The purpose was making Essentia not possible to disregard in the event you’re strolling across the metropolis.”
‘If rulebook, rip it’
All collectively, the weather of the marketing campaign play into the edginess in Essentia’s DNA, highlighting that achievements throughout a spread of actions don’t come with out danger. The trouble positions Essentia as a catalyst for shoppers to vary their very own life equations, because the marketing campaign’s identify maintains. The model’s tagline and an “if X, Y it” assemble within the artistic (“If rulebook, rip it,” says one advert) nod to the plus and equal symbols in Essentia’s iconography and packaging.
“We’ve at all times had actual power within the branding… so we have been leaning a bit of tougher into that graphically, bringing that to the floor to present it that punch,” mentioned Tom McQueen, government artistic director at Droga5, the company that helped create the marketing campaign. Droga5 beforehand labored with Essentia on a social-first marketing campaign for the launch of the model’s first-ever flavored, practical water.
Three hero movies rethink class cliches round health and sports activities by putting athletes in a stark studio with an artwork exhibit-like high quality. “If” incorporates a weightlifter utilizing cinder blocks as weights, “Winner” incorporates trophies right into a exercise and “Liftoff” focuses on a handful of skate boarders.
“When it’s the water class, it might probably get fairly gentle and vivid, and what Essentia has at all times accomplished rather well has been the antithesis to that and extra of an angle,” McQueen mentioned. “The movies had extra grit to them, and it was much more of a graphic provocation that … actually allow you to give attention to the voiceover, the viewpoint and the message.”
Activations all through New York faucet into town’s vibrant avenue tradition and embrace installations at skate parks, pop-up performances and a “guerilla” sampling push. The model can even accomplice with health locale Motion Black Nomad and influencers together with @gabbois and @citybikeboys.
Breaking boundaries
Essentia can also be the unique water model of the Barclays Middle and the Brooklyn Nets and may have a presence on LED signage at residence video games and on the group’s Follow within the Park occasion on Sept. 27.
The model’s newest sports activities partnership is with Athlos, which is returning for its second annual occasion on Oct. 10 and can launch a league subsequent 12 months. Partnering with Athlos provides Essentia a brand new approach to spend money on ladies’s sports activities: with a league that can function athlete-owners and an genuine connection to the model.
“They’re the embodiment of fixing the equation in ladies’s sports activities by actually elevating and honoring these feminine observe and discipline athletes who’re actually pushing boundaries,” Weiss mentioned. “We actually see it as shared celebration of our dedication to ambition, function and breaking limits.”
Whereas “Change the Equation” is launching with a New York-focused marketing campaign, iterations for cities together with Los Angeles and Miami are within the works for 2026.
“We’re working by how we’re going to deploy this hyperlocal technique to a number of the different precedence markets that additionally lead tradition the place we additionally need to win,” Weiss mentioned. “We’re excited to see totally different variations present up in a brand new, regionally related manner.”
