When people think of V8, they think of tomato juice. So, when this iconic American brand came out with a new drink for a new audience, V8 needed something bold to break through. V8 +HYDRATE was designed to be a refreshing beverage for millennials, but this audience was already being bombarded with overwhelming options to hydrate. Gatorade. Coconut water. Fancy hipster seltzers. To connect with millennials and convince them to try this new drink, we had to figure out what this target audience was missing. With social and supporting digital content, V8 +HYDRATE ultimately made its mark in this market while exceeding benchmark impressions and trial.
We took a close look at the competition in the hydration category, and realized there was one activity that millennials loved, yet not owned by mainstream beverage companies: boozing. That’s when we decided that our hydrating, electrolyte-rich beverage could be positioned as a cure for hangovers.
Instead of enlisting an army of influencers to post about our new hangover cure, we put the hopes of an entire product line on just one person: Dr. Ken Jeong. Beloved comedian. Star of The Hangover series. And an actual licensed doctor (12 years removed, cough, cough). Together with Dr. Ken, we launched The Center for Hangover Research. Inside, Ken conducted a series of rehydration experiments on hungover millennials, with each piece of content reinforcing V8 +HYDRATE as the go-to hangover solution.
Leveraging Dr. Ken’s high social following, our completely unscientific “research” was blasted out across all social channels. Each video, GIF, Instagram Story introduced V8 +HYDRATE to a new audience. We even timed our launch to coincide with the 10-year anniversary of the Hangover.
Then, on July 5th –the most hungover day of the summer—Dr. Ken released the ultimate way to recover: the Emergency Rehydration Kit. With just a click, hungover millennials could request this carefully curated kit (complete with +HYDRATE) delivered to their front door. V8 +HYDRATE broke through with our new audience and we sold out of kits in a matter of hours.
We put all our hopes in Dr. Ken, and it paid off. Not only did he help this campaign drive trial and exceed all impression benchmarks, but his organic posts also reached over 1MM consumers. But most importantly, millions of millennials gave V8 +HYDRATE a try – and liked it! Thanks to Dr. Ken, there were 17,973 coupons redeemed 61,244 total site visits, ultimately driving awareness and interest in V8 +HYDRATE.
