This comedic-style mockumentary featured a real person called Drink Water Rivera, a personality that had trended in the Philippines around January 2023.

We see him talk about the origin of his name starting from his mother’s pregnancy, when she craved for water during his birth. He also goes on to say that hydration is life.

We show him using water in all of life’s important moments: at the office, in a bar, at a wedding, and even sleeping on a waterbed.

However, there was one occasion in which, to everyone’s shock, Drink Water doesn’t choose water: when he’s working out. That’s when he chooses Gatorade No Sugar, because even Drink Water knows that to ensure optimal hydration and replace everything he loses in sweat, he needs a Gatorade.

Sometimes your past success gets in the way of your future growth. So for every brand there comes a time when they need to, in the famous words of Billy Beane (wonderfully portrayed by Brad Pitt in Moneyball), “adapt or die.”

Coming out of the pandemic, Gatorade was struggling to maintain market share in the Philippines with its main competitor rapidly gaining ground - especially with a casual active audience.

Due to Gatorade’s heritage and iconic advertising with some of the greatest athletes of our time, there was a perception that Gatorade was only for professionals and serious athletes.

This meant that people who just hit the gym now and then, or played sports casually with friends didn’t think Gatorade was for them.

The introduction of Gatorade No Sugar gave us an opportunity to speak to a broader active audience, drive consideration in more occasions, and strengthen the brand’s position.

In a day, the film garnered over 2.9 million views and over 19 million earned media reach.

The news spread even further as it was shared thousands of times and was even picked up by over 53 media outlets around the world.

It’s too soon to tell what the impact was on brand perception, but from the comments and 93% net sentiment score it’s clear that people absolutely loved it.

It showed a completely new side to the “old serious sports performance brand” to a new active audience and Gatorade No Sugar’s sales increased by 237% vs last year, beating out all competition, which grew at lower rates (Pocari +36%, Powerade +55%).

To ensure this work landed effectively, we didn’t just need a message that would be relevant to people locally, but we needed to express it in a way that would connect with them and make Gatorade feel less like a big corporation, and more for them - a brand that gets it.

As mentioned, when diving into the local culture we found that naming conventions in the Philippines are quite unique. It’s commonplace for people to be named after an idea, item, or phrase.

When diving deeper, we found that Drink Water Rivera had just gone viral for his name and devotion to hydration, which made him the perfect partner to bring our idea to life in a culturally relevant way.

The style of the film also very much reflected the local tone of comedy, ensuring it connected with people beyond the serious athletes that Gatorade normally spoke to.

As mentioned before, it’s commonplace for people in the Philippines to have quirky and creative names. This made using Drink Water as our brand ambassador all the more culturally relevant.

Additionally, there is also a Filipino belief that any food craving during pregnancy imprints characteristics on a child. This added local humour to the work given Drink Water’s mother had claimed she had craved water during childbirth.