In 2012, MiO introduced Canadians to an entirely new beverage category: liquid water enhancers. By the end of 2013, awareness of the brand among male millennials had reached 88%, and all eight of MiO’s flavours ranked among the top-10 category sellers. But the category that MiO invented was growing more crowded each day, and 2014 brought the launch of dozens of additional market entrants by beverage behemoths, including Coca-Cola and Nestlé.

The target was male millennials – 18- to 34-year-old guys who believe in breaking convention and defending their originality. They’ve seen, liked and maybe even shared MiO’s past ads, but they don’t yet have a MiO bottle in their backpacks, desk drawers or glove compartments.

So in 2014, the brand launched its new campaign platform, “Make it Original,” based on the product name, reinforcing MiO’s commitment to originality and enabling the target to be themselves. “Make it Original” is about celebrating freethinking millennial males – guys who know how they want to be, live and express themselves.

Awareness of MiO may have been sky high, but penetration rates had stalled. There was a yawning gap between awareness and usage, so the challenge was to begin to close it – to turn guys who know and like MiO into guys who use MiO.

This challenge demanded that something different be done. MiO’s past campaigns made the brand famous and built its equity, but they didn’t get MiO into enough hands. So in 2014, there was a need to not just pique interest – but incite trial.

The team knew it couldn’t force the target to put down his bottle of Gatorade and pick up MiO instead. But it could capitalize on the places, times and situations where the target would be open to the benefits MiO offers – places where he was doing his thing, times when he wanted to break away from the ordinary and situations where the unpredictability, experimentation and playful attitude that MiO embodies are exactly what’s called for.

To do this, the brand partnered with NXNE, Toronto’s premier music and arts festival. Rather than just partnering with the festival, handing out samples and slapping the logo on venue posters, a new approach to event sponsorship was needed – an approach that would both allow the target to express their own originality and demonstrate that MiO understands what that originality means.

During NXNE, MiO was everywhere. A 360-degree campaign was created with multiple touchpoints, including print ads, posters, banner ads, video content and a robust social presence. Sampling teams were at all of the busiest venues and the popular nightclub The Hoxton was turned into MiO House.

The team also wanted to live its brand mantra and “Make it Original,” so it created MiO POV, a first-of-its kind app that let fans live-stream video from their phones straight to the concert venue’s mainstage screens. Essentially the concert coverage was crowdsourced, going from four cameras covering the show to putting a live one in every fan’s hand through their smartphones. The app launched at the free headline concert at Yonge-Dundas Square. A live production crew monitored the feeds, selecting the best on an ongoing basis, and pushed them live to the screens all night.

The inspiration for the next tactic came from considering the social behaviour of music fans who attend the festival, travelling around the city looking for the best shows, which often take place in pop-up spaces or ad hoc stages, in order to enjoy the best festival experience in the hopes of earning bragging rights the next day. Drawing on this insight, a venue and experience was created that was truly original. A Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) streetcar was chartered to create “The MiO Squirtcar” for four nights of concerts moving along the Queen Street West neighbourhood.

Ensuring the venue was as closely linked to the festival’s DNA as possible, the brand partnered with NXNE to build credibility and authenticity, as well as the Canadian broadcaster Much, known for its strong connection to music. “The MiO Squirtcar” was designated an official venue of the NXNE festival and was filled each night with a lineup of the most popular international acts.

MiO dominated the conversation around NXNE. The brand was mentioned in conjunction with the festival 360% more than Red Bull and 800% more than Budweiser, the other title sponsors. MiO’s sponsorship was featured in 371 traditional media stories, 80% of which were national. During NXNE, it gave out nearly 64,000 samples. Rather than just trying the product, the team got its target to associate it with the original music and experiences he loves. It then spread awareness of the campaign across Canada, expanding the experience well beyond those who attended the festival, receiving 31.6 million social media impressions, 30 million paid impressions and 403 million earned impressions.