THE CHALLENGE

SodaStream and Bubly, two of the biggest names in the sparkling water industry, collaborated on a flavor infusion product line called Bubly Drops. While the team was initially briefed to create a traditional media event, the Covid-19 pandemic was surging at the time, and a large-scale media event was no longer possible.

We were launching as Canadians were feeling peak pandemic burnout. With people spending most of their working and non-working days on camera, video calls had suddenly become our sole way to connect to friends, family, co-workers and the outside world.

This cultural truth aligned with the product’s value proposition: adding Bubly Drops to SodaStream can be a real gamechanger, not only to someone's water but also to someone's day. We challenged ourselves to create a launch campaign that — like Bubly Drops — would add a touch of effervescence, breaking up the “same old” that Canadians were facing every day.

THE STRATEGY

With a mind toward refurbishing the traditional media event for the pandemic-era, the work takes a relevant and humorous spin on the now ubiquitous Zoom call format while reinforcing the ease with which consumers can now ‘drop in’ Bubly flavors to their SodaStream.

Leveraging Bubly’s beloved spokesman, and proud Canadian, Michael Bublé, Edelman’s creative team arranged for Bublé to casually ‘drop’ in to unsuspecting Zoom calls happening across his home country.

THE EXECUTION

Michael was on board from the beginning. So all we needed was Zoom meetings, but not just any Zoom meetings, ones that would be target-relevant, and would permit such a disruptive drop-in. Using a back door casting approach, we gained access to meetings that ranged from a birthday party and a local municipality meeting to a fitness class, cooking class, Mommy meet-up and even an ET Canada interview between Jann Arden and Cheryl Hickey.

We collaborated directly with Michael on his entrance for each setting to generate genuine surprise and unbridled joy. All drop-ins were shot in a single day and edited that same night for next-day media placement. We produced a :90 highlight reel for social, and a :15 social ad driving to OLV on YouTube, ensuring even wider reach.

THE OUTCOME

Our idea not only created media buzz for bubly drops, it also produced some truly effervescent sales results for SodaStream.

• 440k+ organic views of the “Bublé Drop Ins” OLV on YouTube
• Average 47% incremental POS volume to the flavors segment per week.
• bubly drops performed 2.5 times better in converted sales than SodaStream’s previous fruit-flavored line.
• In May, bubly drops consisted of more than one-third of the total flavors unit sales.
• Each of the six flavors are within the top 10 most popular in the brand’s flavor segment, overtaking the previous #1 and #2 SKUs in the segment.