Drink Up is the Partnership for a Healthier America's consumer campaign to encourage people to drink more water more often.
Drink Up Ashanti was designed to showcase the power of water by demonstrating its effect on an artist and song. In a first of its kind effort, we "dehydrated" Ashanti's new single ("Let's Go") by creating four versions of the song and of the music video that represented increasing levels of hydration. The only way to hydrate the song and video was for people to use #DrinkUpAshanti on Instagram and Twitter. Each post with the hashtag represented the contribution of a drop of water to reach the next level of hydration. We then took that one step further and allowed anyone who used the hashtag to find their post embedded within the music video itself. The campaign ran from November 5 – December 5, and the song was released for sale on iTunes and other major music platforms at the conclusion of the campaign.
The goal was to reach as many people as possible and galvanize them to use #DrinkUpAshanti. We loved the idea that anyone using #DrinkUpAshanti was playing an active role in the release of Ashanti's new single and lending their voice to support Drink Up's mission of encouraging more people to drink more water more often.
Ashanti was the perfect first artist for this platform – her nearly 7 million social media fans are not your run of the mill followers. They are incredibly loyal, active and engaged. They are also always primed to find out what she's doing next, so the process of teasing the campaign and mobilizing her fans was key. Ashanti's fans crave authenticity so we had to remain nimble with both our creative aesthetic and our messaging. A wide range of different tactics, from teaser images of the hydrated video, to direct calls from Ashanti to move the song to the next level, to photos of Ashanti surrounded by the same lush environment seen in the video, all helped to keep the campaign feeling fresh.
#DrinkUpAshanti was present wherever the campaign was mentioned, ranging from morning news shows and daytime TV to custom branded reusable water bottles to paid media executed on Instagram as well as via traditional banner pre-roll ads. We also had some helpful friends like Flo Rida and Ja Rule, who used their channels to support the effort and spread the word to an even broader audience.
We needed social media to fully hydrate and release the song, so #DrinkUpAshanti was truly the crux of the campaign. And we needed the audience to stay engaged with us throughout the month long run and help build buzz about the progress the song and video were making. We had to strike the right balance between anticipation and excitement, without tipping people over into frustration. We timed the release of the new versions of the song strategically with that in mind, and mid-way through the campaign we added to the energy and buzz by launching a sweepstakes for a lucky winner to receive an all expenses paid trip to Grenada to see Ashanti in concert. Centered around #DrinkUpAshanti, this campaign placed water at the forefront of the new music frontier, utilizing social media in a way that was new and extremely successful for Drink Up.
Drink Up Ashanti garnered over 650 million impressions during its one-month run. In addition to adding over 3,000 new followers to Drink Up's social platforms we reached more than 13 million Twitter accounts. Media coverage ranged from an exclusive article on Parade.com to iHeart Media to Dr. Oz, The Real, Hollywood Live, and TMZ. Tack on more than 450,000 likes of #DrinkUpAshanti posts on Ashanti's official Instagram account and we feel the campaign was enthusiastically received and disseminated the Drink Up brand widely.
