Transforming Liquid I.V.: From sports supplement to lifestyle essential
Influencer MarketingButtermilk repositioned Liquid I.V. in the UK from a fitness product to an everyday wellness staple using creator storytelling inside run clubs, music festivals, and Ramadan routines.
About the campaign
In the UK, Liquid I.V., Unilever's hydration brand, was boxed in by its own credibility: perceived primarily as a sports supplement, it was reaching fitness-oriented consumers while a far larger everyday audience went untouched, a Liquid I.V. survey cited by Buttermilk suggesting 65 percent of Brits do not drink enough water. Buttermilk's repositioning strategy rested on cultural context selection, embedding the product inside three UK communities where hydration is organically relevant but not yet owned by any supplement brand: run clubs, music festivals, and Ramadan fasting routines.
Creators were drawn from those communities themselves and briefed to weave Liquid I.V. into their own lifestyle narratives rather than deliver product-focused scripts, positioning the brand as a natural companion to rituals people already care about rather than a sponsor interrupting them. Content ran across Instagram and TikTok, prioritising narrative fit over scripted messaging to preserve the audience trust that creator content depends on.
Buttermilk reports 8 million total views, 43,000 pounds in earned media value, and 93 percent of participating creators rating the brand five stars, and states that 55 percent of UK consumers now discover Liquid I.V. through social and creator channels, though no baseline or methodology is disclosed for that figure; all results are agency self-reported.
Case in 60 seconds
In the UK, Liquid I.V. was perceived primarily as a sports supplement, limiting its addressable audience to fitness-oriented consumers despite a much broader potential market for everyday hydration.
65% of Brits reportedly do not drink enough water, according to a Liquid I.V. survey cited by Buttermilk, pointing to a large latent audience that the brand could not reach while its identity remained tethered to sport and performance.
Reframe hydration as a cultural and social act by embedding Liquid I.V. inside three community contexts where hydration is genuinely relevant but not yet owned by any supplement brand: run clubs, music festivals, and Ramadan fasting routines.
Buttermilk briefed creators drawn from run club, festival, and Ramadan communities to weave Liquid I.V. into their own lifestyle narratives rather than deliver product-focused scripts, distributing the resulting content across social and creator channels including Instagram and TikTok.
The campaign reported 8M total views, £43k in earned media value, and 93% of participating creators rating Liquid I.V. five stars. Buttermilk also reports that 55% of UK consumers now discover the brand through social and creator channels, though no baseline or methodology is disclosed for that figure.
Strategy Breakdown
The primary strategy-learning section — interpretation, not a press-release summary.
Creative & Execution System
Assets & channels
- Creator-led social content on Instagram (reported)
- Creator-led social content on TikTok (reported)
- Social and creator channels — platform split not disclosed in source
Partners
- Buttermilk (lead creator and strategy agency)
Participation mechanic
- Creators briefed to weave Liquid I.V. into their own lifestyle narratives across three cultural contexts
- No scripted product-focused deliverables reported
- Community-led content anchored in run clubs, music festivals, and Ramadan routines
Creator role
- Community insider — creators were drawn from the specific communities targeted (run club participants, festival-goers, Ramadan observers)
- Lifestyle narrator — product integrated into existing personal storytelling rather than fronting product reviews
- No specific creator names or tier information disclosed in available sources
Results & Evidence
| Metric | Value | Result type | Confidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total views | 8M | Reach/Awareness | Agency reported |
| Earned media value (EMV) | £43k | Media value | Agency reported |
| Creator satisfaction rating | 93% | Creator relationship | Agency reported |
| UK discovery via creator channels | 55% | Brand discovery / channel attribution | Agency reported |
Why Buttermilk's strategy worked
- 1
Selecting cultural contexts where hydration is genuinely relevant (run clubs, festivals, Ramadan) gave the brand a credible reason to appear inside community content rather than alongside it. Buttermilk's case study attributes much of the campaign's coherence to this context-first selection process.
- 2
Avoiding product-centric briefs reduced the tension between creator authenticity and brand messaging. When creators integrated Liquid I.V. into stories they were already telling, the content carried the community trust the brand was trying to borrow.
- 3
Targeting three discrete communities simultaneously allowed the campaign to broaden the brand's demographic footprint without producing a single generic lifestyle message that would have diluted relevance for each group, per Buttermilk's reported strategy.
- 4
High creator satisfaction (93% five-star ratings, reported by Buttermilk) may signal content quality and willingness to advocate for the brand beyond contracted deliverables, though the causal link between satisfaction scores and content performance is not evidenced in the available sources.
- 5
Discovery-channel data (55% of UK consumers finding the brand via social and creator channels) can function as a proxy for repositioning momentum, but the absence of a disclosed baseline means the scale of any shift from prior state cannot be confirmed.
Results
+47pt
Brand association gain
12.83B
Earned media impressions
+27%
Soup brand choice increase
