Agua de Kefir is an electrolyte-rich beverage made from the pads of prickly pear cactus. Despite being richly hydrating and extremely thirst-quenching, it remained a relatively unknown drink. GT’s Living Foods needed to carve out a unique space for the brand relative to its other health-conscious products. So to make inroads with younger audiences – specifically younger Millennials and Gen Z – we hooked up with a couple who’d just survived their thirstiest summer ever on Love Island USA, and invited them into the ADK villa to replenish & recover.
Streaming on Peacock, Love Island USA Season 2 was the summer’s most popular show by some margin. We knew we wanted to leverage the show’s audience and cultural cache, but how could we do it in a way that also built much needed brand equity?
For years, the term “thirsty” has held a negative cultural connotation. But if you look around, thirsty behavior is all around us – in pop music, kids’ favorite dance trends, and certainly on television. Why should yearning for something totally natural – like attention or hydration – become a bad thing? We figured it was time to flip the script on “thirsty,” from something shameful to something to celebrate. Because after all, when you have Agua de Kefir’s broad-spectrum electrolytes and nourishing minerals to satiate yourself, it’s good to be thirsty!
With the above cultural observation in place, we set out to find the right way to execute. JaNa and Kenny were among the show’s most loved contestants, having made it all the way to the final. They’d also made a big splash in the Reunion episode, so we reached out and less than 30 days after the show’s conclusion, they were on a plane to come shoot with us.
Our production approach included trending sounds, thematic tropes and iconic visuals -- as well as asking burning unanswered questions from Love Island -- to create content that connected with Kenny and JaNa’s fanbase on IG & TikTok. Stylistically, we executed the content within our retro 70s brand world, giving fans the opportunity to enjoy their favorite reality stars through a visual lens they’d never seen them before. While engagement was high across the entire suite of content, the most popular posts were the scripted ads we co-authored with the talent. “Receipts” took the cake, in which Kenny doubts Agua de Kefir’s thirst-quenching qualities, and JaNa brings out the physical receipts and reads them to him (the very move she had just pulled on the Reunion episode).
The campaign generated 57 million views, nearly 870,000 likes, nearly 9,000 comments (98% positive) and over 26,000 shares. The comment section popped off as did sales in key retailers like Trader Joe’s and Target (the latter sold out). Many fans posted from beverage aisle and tagged Agua de Kefir, citing JaNa and Kenny as the reason for their journey. Over the course of the monthlong campaign, we experienced a 200% increase in sales. The campaign also eclipsed anything else the brand had ever done, generating over 5,000% more engagement than the next most successful content activation.
