Waterdrop serves up retail plans after Aus Open

Healthy hydration brand Waterdrop will leverage its Australian Open sponsorship to boost brand awareness as it prepares to hit retail channels in 2025.

Waterdrop has signed on as the official bottle partner at the Australian Open.

International hydration brand Waterdrop will leverage its Australian Open sponsorship to bolster its brand awareness ahead of launching in retail channels including WH Smith next year.

The Austrian business, which counts tennis champion Novak Djokovic as an investor and brand ambassador, has signed a multi-year deal as the official bottle partner to the Australian Open and will provide players and their teams with its branded reusable stainless steel bottles.

Waterdrop will also leverage its partner status to promote its Microdrink hydration cubes, which are sugar free, dissolvable electrolytes that add flavours to water.

The brand will offer Australian Open visitors and guests personalised bottles and samples to help boost awareness among consumers. The brand, which started in 2016 and is a $120m business globally, launched in Australia in 2023 and has experienced “huge growth”, according to Waterdrop Australia & New Zealand managing director Catherine Dix.

Waterdrop’s first local appearance came at the Australian Open, when the logo featured on Novak Djokovic’s shirt.

The brand also promoted its bottles and refills using Melbourne tap water to players at the 2024 event, with the initiative helping reduce single use plastic at the event by 99 per cent by facilitating the refill of over 5600 litres of water.

The brand has a longstanding association with tennis through Djokovic, athlete endorsements and an official partnership with the ATP since 2022.

Catherine Dix is the managing director of Waterdrop Australia

Tennis serves as a great fit for the brand due to the central role hydration plays with players regularly seen drinking during games.

Ms Dix said the significant role the heat played at the Australian Open, both for players and fans, was a key opportunity for the local brand to engage with visitors and guests.

“We’ll have what we call Waterdrop Hydristers on site, who will be providing healthy hydration to visitors and guests and ensuring a strong brand presence on site. There will be the bottles and our message around healthy and sustainable hydration and helping to reduce plastic waste.”

The brand, which uses the “no sugar, less plastic” tagline has focused on digital platforms and online sales to date and targeted two key consumer categories, athletes and sports people seeking healthy hydration and consumers seeking healthy alternatives to soft drinks.

However, the launch into retail next year will see the brand appeal to a broader audience.

It comes as the health category continues to experience strong growth off the back of the Covid pandemic. However, the current popularity of supplement products such as collagen powders and electrolytes has presented a challenge to Waterdrop as the brand determines where to position in retail channels.

“Hydration is very on trend, and people are starting to conflate it,” Ms Dix said. “We’re not in the full functional space like all the collagens and proteins, and sometimes we do get mixed up in there because our flavours are sugar free and they have vitamins in them. So, we try to keep the messaging simple that all of our beverages help you drink more water.”

“We’ve spent the last 24 months focusing on what we can do really well. Next year, we plan to move into retail as a grocery product, but that needs to be timed right. Education will be important because you have to have people understanding the product, because ultimately, we’re a little pack with cubes inside it.

“We need people to understand the product because ultimately you’re choosing your sustainable drink bottle, and then you’re also adding flavour to it.”

Waterdrop will launch in WH Smith and other travel retailers at the end of the year, before venturing into mass retail channels next year.

Waterdrop will also use the retail rollout to promote its new Cola flavour, which is the first in a range of new flavours that are targeting consumers looking for sugar-free alternatives. The move will see the brand directly compete with soft drink brands.