OWN THE DAY…
AND NIGHT
Background: Liquid I.V. built its brand around athletic performance. Their campaigns are rooted in sport, a product designed for people who go hard a
The ask: Identify an opportunity for Liquid I.V. to expand into a new audience, usage, occasion, or cultural space through a product extension.
The problem: Liquid IV is known as a hangover cure. Hangover = bad.
My approach: the brief asked us to find an opportunity for brand extension. So, I started with questions: What does this brand mean to real people, in their real lives? And is that the same thing the brand thinks it means? The answer, in this case, was a very revealing "no."
METHODOLOGY:
We started by really talking to people. Then we designed a three-part research approach:
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Over several nights, we conducted intercept interviews with people at bars across Richmond. We caught people in the act of drinking. We asked about their nights, their mornings, their routines, and what they wished existed. Talking to people mid-experience, tensions that a survey never would have caught.
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Scanning Twitter, TikTok, and Reddit for organic, unprompted mentions of Liquid I.V. outside the gym context. We wanted to know how consumers really used the product and their perception of the brand.
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Targeting 24–35 year old urban consumers to understand behavior, associations, and attitudes around social occasions and next-day recovery.
Research Findings
Assumption: Only aLiquid IV’s positioning, ambassador network, and campaigns are all built around athletic performance.
Reality: 67% of our survey respondents associated Liquid I.V. with hangovers, unprompted. Not the gym or hydration during a workout. The morning after a night out.
Assumption: The hangover recovery space is competitive.
Reality: The hangover recovery market is fragmented and without a true dominant player. Cheers Health leads with 18–22% share. Liquid I.V. holds 14–18% of this market without trying.
Assumption: Hangover recovery products belong in the morning.
Reality: The fear of the hangover now precedes the night out entirely. "Hang-xiety" is the nervous anticipation about how drinking will cost you the next morning. It’s a documented, growing cultural phenomenon. 53% of young people worry that drinking will affect their next-day plans before they even go out.
“I sometimes avoid going out because I know I’ll feel terrible the next day and I just can’t afford that.”
Our findings revealed a true tension:
People like hanging out and socializing over a few drinks, but the growth of “hangxiety” is a real concern.
Consumers have to choose between having a fun night out or being productive the next day.
BRINGING THIS TARGET TO LIFE
Our findings revealed that people actually just want to live a life that’s balanced.
We mapped two consumer archetypes at opposite ends of the nightlife-wellness spectrum to find where our target actually clustered.
The Optimizer: Avoids drinking and late nights entirely. Prioritizes health, sleep, and morning routines above all else. There’s no real tension here because the trade-off isn't even a question for them.
The Night Owl: Loves the chaos. Not concerned with health. Dabbles in alcohol and other substances freely. No real tension here either.
Neither extreme needs Liquid IV. The Optimizer doesn't go out. The Night Owl doesn't care about the morning after. Our target is the person caught between those two identities.
So, we called them the Dual-Life Seekers.
THE INSIGHT
Being social shouldn't have to come at the cost of the morning after.
The most compelling insight is that the fear of the hangover is now a social tax. A cost people weigh before deciding to go out at all.
So, there was an obvious strategic opportunity here.
STRATEGY
Be the last (wo)man standing, and the first (wo)man up.
Liquid I.V. already lives in this space organically. Every competitor in hangover recovery operates in the morning. We reframed the entire occasion.
RECOMMENDATION
Liquid IV Tempo is a lightly caffeinated ready-to-drink beverage combining adaptogens AND electrolytes to be consumed the night before.
Instead of morning-after recovery, Liquid I.V. Tempo is a night-before investment. This preserves brand equity while opening a completely uncontested moment: the hours before and during a night out.
Liquid IV “Night Mode” Campaign Work
Liquid IV “Night Mode” Campaign Work
PHASE 1: The Tease
Targeted Placement: We knew we had to meet the Dual Life Seekers where they were at. And they’re definitely in urban cities like NYC, traveling by train.
Socials: We also knew building awareness through socials would be key; Liquid IV has ~475 followers on Instagram and ~125K followers on TikTok.
PHASE 2: Night Mode Pop-Up
We knew the Dual Life Seekers are embedded in culture. So we asked: How can we boost engagement and push Liquid I.V. into a cultural moment? An IRL brand activation, of course.
Teased through socials, we would build hype by granting users an access code to access a secret pop-up in NYC.
CAMPAIGN ON A PAGE
REFLECTION
Tempo is hypothetical. The consumer tension it's built on is not. If Liquid I.V. ever runs a hangover campaign, I'll feel vindicated.