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Glacéau

Vitaminwater, the lead product of glacéau, is not only a healthy alternative to soda and pop, but is a brand built on its personality—fun, quirky and cool. Selling very well on both the east and west coasts, vitaminwater needed to become fully national. Equally important, it needed to be available in key outlets where beverage slotting allowances, often dominated by contracts with Coke and Pepsi, were keeping the product off the shelf.

Ruder Finn was brought in to assist glacéau in generating positive visibility on behalf of all three of its brands—vitaminwater, smartwater and fruitwater—and to assist in making certain that the health benefits of the products were conveyed, the lifestyle image of the brands was maintained and that access to the products by hydration-craving consumers was provided.

 

 

OBJECTIVES

• Support vitaminwater in a market-by-market rollout across the middle of the country and in national publications.
• Increase awareness of the need for appropriate hydration and the asset of added vitamins.
• Tie-in ongoing glacéau marketing efforts to extend their value through public relations.
• Help gain Free Access to the marketplace for glacéau products.

PROGRAM

• Supported all regional marketing efforts, including "OJ Found Guilty" billboards in NY, Chicago and LA.
• Focused media and campus activists attention on efforts to ban vitaminwater from campuses, airports, etc. where Coke and Pepsi slotting allowances prevented Free Access.
• Introduced new flavors for the vitaminwater brand.
• Generated one-on-one business press awareness of the Free Access issue.

RESULTS

• A nearly full page story on the front page of the Wall Street Journal Special Reports Small Business issue about vitaminwater's challenge to Coke and Pepsi included all company messages, as well as a large illustration and four pictures, including one of glacéau's CEO Darius Bikoff.
• Efforts to support the "OJ Found Guilty" billboards produced both local and national coverage, including a segment which aired on CBS stations across the country.
• vitaminwater was labeled a market leader in the energy drink category in more than three dozen trade, consumer and business publications during the year of the campaign.
• More than 90 local market and regional stories appeared during the roll-out period.