Services Work People Careers News Contact FutureVision Offices EN Crack a Smile PepsiCo 01/ The Challenge In 2016, bottled water became America’s favorite beverage. PepsiCo asked us to help capture a greater share of the market by partnering to develop a sparkling water brand that appealed to an untapped market of soda drinkers, looking to add a healthy alternative to their beverage repertoire. Their challenge: the audience they wanted to reach wasn’t the same health-conscious drinker buying sparkling water. In fact, no sparkling water brand had achieved mass adoption with this audience. Even cult sparkling brands reached too narrow a target to achieve PepsiCo’s volume goals. To lure a new generation of sparkling water drinkers, we needed to create a water brand that behaved more like a soda brand. 02/ The Story Water brands have always focused on provenance, purity, or hydration. In short, they communicated product benefits but missing the appeal and fun that soda drinkers want. On top of that, they had a reputation for being elitist & expensive. We targeted millennials with an opposite approach: to frame this new drink as an extension of their world, one filled with optimism and fun, with the name "bubly" as both a reference to the carbonated water itself and the equally bubbly personality of our target audience. The R/GA CHI and NY teams collaborated with PepsiCo to coin the name, visual, and social identities for the new bubly™ sparkling water. This included crafting iconic smiles that are unique to each of the eight flavors, the tab greetings (“oh hi” and “heyo”), and the witty phrases on the product itself. In partnership with PepsiCo, we created carefully thought-out media executions across TV, social, and digital. The campaign launch included a first-of-its-kind GIPHY partnership and a TV spot breaking on The Ellen Show, coinciding with a segment featuring spokesperson, Neil Patrick Harris. Within 5 weeks, bubly delivered 1.4B Giphy views and is now over 3.4B views. Health & Wellness CPG Content Studio Communications Chicago Los Angeles R/GA Offices Office Collaborations Chicago United States Los Angeles United States Related Donate a Photo A Galaxy of Possibility Try on a Six Contact Us Global Austin, TX Berlin, Germany Buenos Aires, Argentina Chicago, IL London, UK Los Angeles, CA Melbourne, Australia New York, NY Portland, OR San Francisco, CA Santiago, Chile Shanghai, China Singapore, Singapore Sydney, Australia São Paulo, Brasil Tokyo, Japan Prospective Clients Alex Sehnaoui Global Chief Growth Officer alex.sehnaoui@rga.com Press & Media Relations Melanie Mahaffey Global Executive Director, Communications +1 512 736 6022 melanie.mahaffey@rga.com Careers at R/GA Apply to an open position or email us at careers@rga.com. © R/GA 2021 Services Work People Careers News Contact FutureVision Terms Privacy Cookies Modern Slavery Policy CCPA Privacy Notice This website uses cookies, including third-party cookies, which allow R/GA to obtain information about your visit to the website. Please click here to learn more about the cookies used on this website and how to change current settings if you do not agree. By continuing to use this website (clicking on a picture or link under this banner), you consent to the use of cookies. I Agree / Close