On September 25, 2020, Nathan Apodaca released a video on his TikTok (@420doggface208) of him skateboarding, drinking Ocean Spray® Cran-Raspberry® juice drink, and singing “Dreams” by Fleetwood Mac. The video was an instant internet sensation and Ocean Spray was met with a real-time opportunity. The objective for Ocean Spray was to monitor and react in an authentic way, tying back to the overarching brand objectives for the co-operative’s 90th anniversary year. These included affinity with Millennials, shifting perception and attitudinal beliefs around Ocean Spray, setting the stage for the future of the family owned co-operative.

When Ocean Spray became aware of Nathan Apodaca’s video, the brand had two options – jump in and react quickly, or organically let it grow to determine how to authentically join the conversation. With the Millennial target in mind, Ocean Spray honed in on their true “defining idea” which was authenticity. This generation glommed on to everything that Nathan stood for and Ocean Spray had to carefully navigate how to catch their attention, while staying true to the movement. The idea was for Ocean Spray to join the movement and impact Nathan’s life, helping to bring positivity and “good vibes” to attract a younger audience during uncertain times.

Before Apodaca’s video launched on TikTok, Ocean Spray did not have a presence on the platform.

The target audience was older Gen Z and younger millennials (18-34) who are Healthy Optimists. As part of their wellness journey, they seek ways to create more good vibes in their day. This audience is critical to our brand as we look to age down from our current core consumer, primarily women 55+, and make our brand relevant to health and wellness. The Ocean Spray® brand ambition is to be a ‘modern wellness brand’.

This audience is active on social media; particularly TikTok. TikTok was the most popular app downloaded globally in 2020 due largely to consumers using more mobile apps during COVID-19. The growth of TikTok is significant among both Millennials and Gen Z, and the platform itself has over 100M monthly active users in the US alone.

On September 25th, 2020, Nathan released his video and the public began to cheer him on. Behind the scenes, Ocean Spray rolled out a surprise; something real, based on the knowledge that the video was born out of an issue where his truck broke down.

On October 6th, Ocean Spray President & CEO Tom Hayes joined TikTok that morning to tease with his own Dreams video. We worked with a local dealership to stock a cranberry-red truck full of Cran-Raspberry® juice and capture the moment in which we surprised Nathan with this meaningful gift. We then strategically used social channels for the reveal - Instagram for the surprise and TikTok to share Nathan’s new Dreams Challenge this time from the truck. These social posts worked in tandem with a huge earned media push and tapped into celebrities and notables such as Jimmy Fallon and Courtney Cox to join the movement.

Ocean Spray was now part of this cultural moment. TikTokers from across the world bought Ocean Spray and paid homage to Apodaca with their own renditions on roller-skates, with pet strollers, and in the sky. Ocean Spray grew from zero to more than 64,000 TikTok followers in 2 months , and on Instagram grew from 17,000 to over 63,000 in the same timeframe . All the while, engagement metrics as well as brand mentions across the internet were skyrocketing. After accounting for COVID effects, the TikTok campaign drove +11% sales growth for Cran-Raspberry® and +3-4% for the entire Ocean Spray® franchise. For the first time, Ocean Spray’s Instagram followers grew by 4X in one week alone. PR impressions grew more than 700,000%, exceeding 24 billion earned media impressions. Importantly, this was all made possible via owned and earned channels, with no paid media from Ocean Spray contributing to the effort.