Liquid IV — School Project
Liquid IV is an electrolyte mix that can be added to water. It has a great taste, and a ton of popularity among college students. For one of my classes, I was tasked with developing an influencer marketing campaign for the brand.
The Ask:
Liquid IV is popular among college students for one primary reason: hangover cures. While this is valuable, Liquid IV has a ton of room to grow in its intended market. Liquid IV has room to compete with Gatorade for the most prominent workout drink. For my assignment, I was tasked with bringing Liquid IV to Gatorade’s level using influencer marketing.
What I Did:
Our campaign focused on three specific universities: The University of Wisconsin-Platteville, The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and Bemidji State University. We chose this university because we found nano influencers and campus athletes at these schools who were willing to help with our campaign.
To create a brand people truly crave, one must look beyond traditional advertising. People crave genuinely funny moments that at least appear to be unscripted. These, coupled with strategically crafted social media posts, will be used to generate positive press and awareness for a brand looking to redefine itself in our demographic. While reels are a staple of all influencer content, they will likely not be enough to sway public perception. College students are already accustomed to an oversaturated advertising market, and have likely already seen some form of each of our video and photo executions.
As such, we will encourage our influencers to let themselves become a meme, drawing inspiration from what happened to Matthew Mayer in 2023. Mayer, an Illinois basketball player, suffered from caffeine poisoning after drinking too much Monster. While Monster did not comment on the matter, the Illinois community did. Our CampusInk released merchandise that dubbed Mayer the “Mullet Monster,” garnering positive publicity for the energy drink company (Nakos, 2023). We will encourage our athletes to chase similar viral moments, paying them to use and talk about the product as much as possible. This obsession with the powder, coupled with livestreams on each athlete’s respective Barstool accounts, will get our influencers into the public eye with a seemingly manic obsession for our product, hopefully inspiring students at their respective campuses to do the same. For my group’s full report, click here. For our full presentation, click here.
What I Learned:
Influencer marketing, especially on a small scale, is challenging. It’s very difficult to find small influencers, but once you do, there is a ton of upside in working with them. They often have more intimate connections with their audiences, and likely have far more sway on a small number of people than a macro influencer would. I think small influencers like the ones I recruited are one of the keys to modern marketing.
Other Contributers
This group projcet was completed jointly with Chloe Beucler, Cooper Haynes, and Bridget Nolan.