Funworks Serves Up Bold Characters and 'True Fruit Flavors' In New Spots for Hint Water

Founded in 2005, Hint Water has always prided itself on not only delivering refreshment without sugar, diet sweeteners, calories or preservatives, but also flavours so accurate, they’re almost unbelievable. So unbelievable, in fact, that the San Francisco-based brand partnered with creative agency Funworks for a comedic campaign that takes fans of Hint on an unexpected journey to explore just how absurdly accurate their fruit flavours really are.

“Making something taste just like fruit without tasting artificial or adding sweeteners is really, really hard to do,” explains Funworks CCO Craig Mangan. “And it’s something that Hint deserves acknowledgement for, so we wanted to make sure that people knew this flavor innovation was unique to Hint in a really memorable way.”

The result is an imaginative campaign that delights while conveying Hint’s uncompromising commitment to flavour, serving up scenarios ranging from slightly quirky to truly off-the-wall. In one surreal spot, a Hint-drinking cloud drenches an enthusiastic crowd with refreshing fruit-flavoured rainwater. In another, a pie-eating contest veers into physical comedy with the contestants contrasting unsweetened Blackberry and Cherry Hint to the fruit filling on each others’ faces. Filled with smart concepts and fun wordplay, these spots take the health-conscious brand in a bold new direction.

“With Hint, founder Kara Goldin created a mission-driven and joyous company,” continues Craig. “Kara believes that joy and humour are very important (especially in today’s climate). So, we did our best to reflect that in the spots, not only because we think it fits the brand inherently, but because humour is just something that really resonates with people.”

Like all of their work, the campaign was conceptualised through a Funworkshop, the agency’s improv-inspired process that champions open conversation toward quickly generating engaging concepts, strategies, and content. The sessions featured customers, marketers, comedians, the brand’s founders, Kara and Theo Goldin, and Hint CMO, Terrence Sweeney, who valued the speed, creativity, honesty, and collaboration fostered by the process.

“Hint is an ideal partner for us because they're willing to describe, discuss and have tough conversations about who they are and then share all that collectively with us,” says Craig. “And that really helps create trust and respect and allows everyone to be brave.”

“This campaign is another step in our evolution from a start-up challenger to an industry-leading brand,” said Kara Goldin, Hint’s founder and CEO. “We’re growing faster than every major brand in our category, and we’re coming off our best summer ever. This campaign is going to drive brand awareness and affinity to new heights and help us continue the momentum in our 30,000 retail outlets as well as our direct-to-consumer channel.”