Drench Water: Smart Hydration

Was over on brand new earlier today and came across this ad, which Gareth found via Rob.

I have to say, it's one of the best ads I've seen in a while. It entertained me. It made me smile. It reminded me of yet another reason it's good to stay hydrated. It even made me think kindly of a product that is often accused of doing more harm than good.

(And maybe part of the reason I like it is due to it reminding me of one of my favorite music videos.)

Then I immediately started to question the strategy. (I know. I always have to poke holes in good ads, don't I. Sorry. Can't help it. It's just in my nature to question everything. Anyway...) It's selling a benefit of drinking water, not the brand.

You don't have to drink Drench water to be properly hydrated. You just have to drink water, or any non-dehydrating liquid for that matter, to stay hydrated. And as far as I can tell, there's nothing special about Drench that makes it hydrate you better than any other water.

Now, to Drench's defense, if you go to their site, you'll see that they're positioning themselves around "smart hydration," not just hydration. (Seems like it would have been a great position for smartwater, no?) And using Brains from Thunderbirds as a spokespuppet is quite clever and yet another reinforcement of the strategy.

I think really what they're doing though is not so much trying to own hydration as they are trying to create a unique voice for the brand and basing it on smart hydration to start with.

With bottled water, I would imagine this is actually an imperative in order to demand a price above the low-cost leaders. If it's all just water no matter what bottle it's in, then it will be your marketing that makes people chose to pay more for your brand.

Clearly people are willing to pay a premium for Fiji Water because of the marketing, maybe even more so now that they're working to be carbon negative.

If I look at it in that regard, that they're using hydration as a product-relevant launching point to taking the position of being a light-hearted and fun water brand in category filled with overly-pretentious high-end brands, non-distinguishable mid-tier brands, and several low-cost players, then it all makes much more sense.

Given the slow growth the brand has experienced the past two years, with no TV advertising and a campaign based strictly on hydration, this approach - of developing a fun, interesting and entertaining voice brought to life both on TV and digitally - could be just what the need to get things going.

Agency is CHI & Partners.

Comments

[adguru]

yes - I agree. And the digital seeding deserves real credit - it is all over the internet and racking up the views

[Dion Hughes]

Ha. Just as well we didn't get into this at lunch yesterday. we could have gone for hours. As it happens, i have on my desk right now the definitive collection of water brands, gathered for a project we're doing, creating and launching a water that ups the ante on 'gimmick'. i've got vapor distilled, i've got water that gives a few cents per bottle to the UN Refugee Agency, i've got silica rich from NZ, water that is enhanced by ionic separation, there's ultra-purified and electrolyte enhanced and mtbe free and it goes on and on. standing out is a matter of hitting it just right, either through entirely invented marketing 'fog-sculpting' such as this excellent Drench piece, or by, as I hope, inventing a whole new level of weirdness. interesting though, that for all the screaming, the product that has caught the most attention from anyone who has seen my prize collection is a brand called sei water http://www.seiwater.com as simple as a bottle can get, but enough in the shape and manner of a flask of spirits it jerks the head around.

[xgeronimo]

smart water, smart message, respect.